FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 

JAMES  FURMAN  KEMP 

Professor  of  Geology  1892-1926 

Given  by  his  son,  James  Taylor  Kemp 

1927 


fe, 


With  the  compliments  of 

J.  D.  WHITNEY. 


THE    UNITED    STATES. 


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G.<£"Ajt*r^L-         v< 

THE 


UNITED    STATES: 


FACTS  AND   FIGURES   ILLUSTRATING 
THE  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE   COUNTRY, 

AND   ITS   MATERIAL    RESOURCES. 


Supplement  I, 

POPULATION:    IMMIGRATION: 
IRRIGATION. 


BY 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND    COMPANY. 
1894. 


JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


3-7  Ski 

Bancroft  Library 


CO 

x: 

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PREFACE. 


HPHIS  volume  is  essentially  a  continuation  of  an 
article  originally  written  for  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,  and  published  in  part  in  that  work,  and 
afterwards  separately,  with  omissions  supplied,  and  a 
small  amount  of  additional  matter  added,  in  which  the 
statistics  of  certain  important  industries  were  brought 
up  to  the  latest  date,  for  which  information  could  be 
procured.  In  this  republication  of  the  article  as  origi- 
nally written,  an  appendix  was  added  in  which  vari- 
ous topics  connected  with  the  discovery  and  scientific 
development  of  the  country  were  discussed  more  at 
length  than  would  have  been  admissible  in  the  text  of 
the  work.  The  volume  as  thus  enlarged  was  published 
just  before  the  census  of  1890  was  taken  ;  so  that  the 
statistics  of  population  which  it  contained  were  neces- 
sarily unsatisfactory,  inasmuch  as  they  represented  a 
condition  of  things  existing  nearly  a  decade  before  its 
publication.  Hence  it  was,  from  the  beginning,  the 
author's  intention  to  prepare  a  supplement  in  which 
this  defect  should  have  been  remedied,  and  this  was  to 
be  done  as  soon  as  the  results  of  the  census  of  1890, 
so  far  as  they  related  to  population,  became  available 


vi  PREFACE. 

for  use.  It  was  not,  however,  until  1892  that  the 
publication  of  the  full  census  returns  made  this  pos- 
sible, but  it  has  now  been  done,  and  on  the  plan 
adopted  in  the  original  work,  which  was  to  present 
the  important  facts  in  a  very  condensed  form,  leaving 
details  of  minor  importance  to  be  sought  for  in  the 
volumes  of  the  Census  Reports. 

In  the  matter  of  the  statistics  of  immigration  a 
course  similar  to  that  adopted  in  regard  to  popula- 
tion was  not  so  important  or  desirable,  because  the 
official  publications  dealing  with  the  former  are  issued 
so  promptly  that  it  was  impossible  in  the  original 
work,  the  date  of  whose  publication  was  1889,  to  pre- 
sent the  important  facts  relating  to  immigration  down 
to  a  date  so  late  as  to  include  the  whole  of  1888,  and 
a  part  of  1889.  In  the  present  volume,  however,  the 
statistics  of  immigration  include  the  essential  facts  for 
the  year  1893,  and  for  the  first  half  of  1894,  and  some 
matters  relating  to  this  subject  in  general  have  been 
discussed  more  fully  than  they  were  in  the  original 
work. 

The  subject  of  the  increase  and  distribution  of  the 
population,  which  includes  all  matters  connected  with 
immigration,  is  also  closely  allied  to  that  of  irrigation, 
as  will  become  evident  on  examining  the  contents  of 
the  present  volume.  Hence  it  was  natural  that  these 
three  topics  should  here  be  taken  up  in  sequence. 
That  the  irrigation  question  should  not  have  been 
opened  in  the  original  work  need  not  excite  surprise, 
because  almost  all  the  definite  knowledge  which  we 


PREFACE.  Vii 

have  in  regard  to  it  is  of  very  recent  origin,  very  few 
United  States  official  publications  relating  to  irrigation 
bearing  dates  less  recent  than  1890.  When  it  was  de- 
cided to  include  this  subject  in  the  present  work,  the 
author  himself  was  not  aware  how  important  the  irri- 
gation question  is  to  a  large  part  of  the  country,  and 
how  many  interesting  scientific  and  economical  prob- 
lems are  involved  in  it.  For  some  time,  indeed,  it 
was  impossible  to  get  hold  of  various  documents  and 
reports  bearing  on  this  question,  some  of  which  could 
only  be  obtained  after  the  volume  had  made  consid- 
erable progress.  This  circumstance  will  account  for 
the  somewhat  disjointed  character  of  that  part  of  the 
present  work  which  relates  to  irrigation ;  a  further 
difficulty  has  been  encountered  in  the  fact  that  various 
official  documents  appear  not  to  have  been  issued,  or 
at  least  not  made  accessible  to  the  general  public, 
until  considerably  later  than  their  time  of  publication, 
as  fixed  by  the  dates  which  they  bear  on  their  title- 
pages. 

J.  D.  WHITNEY. 
CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  August,  1894. 


CONTENTS. 


I.    POPULATION. 

Population  and  percentage  of  increase,  at  each  decennial 
census,  from  1790  to  1890,  1,  2.  Effects  of  the  Civil  War 
on  the  growth  of  the  population,  2. 

Density  and  distribution  of  the  population,  3.  Movement  of 
the  population,  4.  Positions  of  the  centre  of  population, 
1790-1890,  4,  5. 

Division  of  the  population  by  sexes,  5.  Geographical  distribu- 
tion of  the  sexes,  5,  6.  Alteration  in  various  States  in  the 
condition  of  the  population  with  regard  to  the  distribution 
of  the  sexes,  6,  7.  Present  distribution  of  the  sexes  in 
various  geographical  divisions,  7. 

Distribution  of  the  population  with  reference  to  color,  7,  8. 
Relative  decrease  of  the  colored  population  from  1790 
to  1890,  8.  Past  and  present  geographical  distribution 
of  the  colored  population,  8.  Number  and  distribution  of 
the  Chinese,  9. 

Distribution  of  the  population  -with  reference  to  the  topographi- 
cal and  climatic  features  of  the  country,  9,  10.  Distribution 
of  the  population  by  drainage  basins,  and  percentage  of  the 
total  population  in  the  different  drainage  basins,  in  1880 
and  1890,  10.  Distribution  of  the  population  in  accord- 
ance with  the  topographical  features,  from  1870-1890,  11. 


X  CONTENTS. 

Distribution  of  the  population  in  cities  and  towns,  11—13. 
Number  of  large  cities,  1790-1890,  11.  Cities  having  a 
population  of  over  100,000,  arranged  in  numerical  order, 
12.  Geographical  distribution  of  large  cities,  13. 

Number  and  percentage  of  persons  of  native  and  foreign  birth, 

1850-1890, 13. 

II.    IMMIGRATION. 

Earliest  statistics  of  immigration,  14,  15.  Immigrants  entering 
from  Canada  and  Mexico,  14, 15.  Number  and  national- 
ities of  immigrants,  1820-1893,  16-18. 

Fluctuations  in  the  number  of  immigrants,  and  changes  in  regard 
to  their  nationalities,  19.  Distribution  of  immigrants 
through  the  country,  20. 

Distribution  of  the  native  and  foreign-born  population,  21.  Per- 
centage increase  of  native  and  foreign-born  population,  by 
geographical  divisions,  from  1850  to  1890,  21.  Percentage 
of  foreign-born  population,  and  geographical  distribution 
as  compared  with  native,  from  1870  to  1890,  21,  22. 

Exclusion  of  the  Chinese,  22.  Farther  legislation  concerning 
the  Chinese,  22,  23. 

Exclusion  of  convicts,  lunatics,  and  idiots,  etc.,  24.  Regulation 
of  the  immigrant-carrying  business  by  Congress,  24. 
Restraints  on  immigration,  24. 

III.    IRRIGATION. 

Distribution  of  the  population  in  accordance  •with  the  mean 
annual  rainfall,  25.  Imperfection  of  the  statistics  of  rain- 
fall, 25.  Scantiness  of  rainfall  much  more  important  than 
overabundance  in  reference  to  density  of  population,  26. 
Parts  of  the  country  where  the  rainfall  is  large  and  the 
population  scanty,  26. 


CONTENTS.  Xi 

Regions  thinly  inhabited  on  account  of  insufficient  supply  of 
rain,  27.  Slow  growth,  or  even  decrease,  of  the  popula- 
tion in  parts  of  the  arid  region,  between  1880  and  1890, 

27,  28. 

Area  and  population  of  the  Cordilleran  division,  1880  and  1890, 

28.  Effects  of  irrigation,  28.     Introduction  of  irrigation, 

28,  29. 

Appropriations  by  Congress  for  preliminary  work  with  reference 
to  a  scientifically  planned  irrigational  system  for  the  arid 
region,  by  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  29.  Reports  of 
work  done  by  the  Geological  Survey,  as  far  as  received 
up  to  September,  1893,  30,  31.  Nothing  up  to  this  time 
actually  done  by  the  government  toward  carrying  out  these 
irrigation  schemes,  31. 

Great  expenses  and  difficulties  necessarily  to  be  encountered  if 
this  were  to  be  attempted,  32.  Light  on  this  subject  from 
the  reports  of  the  Chief  of  Engineers,  in  regard  to  the 
reservoirs  built  by  government  at  the  head  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, 32,  33.  Discussion  of  the  utility  of  these  reser- 
voirs, 33. 

irrigation  in  India,  34-36.  Essential  differences  between  the 
conditions  in  India  and  in  the  United  States  as  regards 
irrigation,  34-36.  Density  of  population  of  India,  35. 
Irregularity,  not  scantiness,  of  precipitation  the  difficulty 
in  India,  35,  36.  Table  showing  the  density  of  the  pop- 
ulation, the  number  of  acres  cultivated,  and  the  number 
irrigated,  with  the  average  rainfall  of  the  principal  dis- 
tricts of  India,  36. 

Table  showing  the  annual  precipitation  and  local  variations  at 
stations  in  the  arid  region,  37.  Contrast  between  conditions 
in  India  and  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States,  38, 
System  of  irrigation  of  the  Doab  described,  38. 

Injurious  effects  of  long-continued  irrigation,  or  so-called  "over 
irrigation,"  39.  Statements  of  English  engineers  in  regard 


xii  CONTENTS. 

to  this  matter,  39-41.  Long-continued  irrigation  in  various 
countries  other  than  India,  41,  42. 

Physical  decay  of  certain  Eastern  countries,  41.  G.  P.  Marsh's 
views  in  regard  to  the  causes  of  this  condition  of  things, 
42.  Reference  to  the  present  writer's  investigations  of  this 
subject,  42. 

B.  W.  Hilgard's  investigations  of  the  "  reh  "  or  alkaline  deposits 
in  California,  43-45.  Origin  of  the  "  reh,"  43.  Attention 
to  this  matter  recommended,  45.  The  subject  of  drainage 
in  connection  with  the  "  reh,"  45.  Report  of  the  Super- 
intendent of  the  Geological  Survey  of  India  on  this 
subject,  46. 

Irrigation  of  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States  by  means  of 
Artesian  wells,  46-48.  Report  of  F.  H.  Newell  on  "  Arte- 
sian wells  for  Irrigation,"  47.  What  is  an  Artesian  well? 
47,  48.  Titles  of  United  States  official  publications  on 
Artesian  wells,  47. 

Artesian  conditions  in  the  Paris  Basin,  49,  50.  The  Artesian 
well  of  Grenelle,  49.  Of  Passy,  49,  50. 

Deep  and  Artesian  wells  in  London,  51,  52.  Failure  of  deep 
Artesian  wells,  and  causes  of  this,  51.  Deep  borings  in 
the  London  basin,  51,  52.  Deep  bored  wells  in  Central 
and  Northern  England,  52.  Water  supply  of  Manchester 
and  Liverpool,  52,  53.  The  Vyrnwy  dam,  53. 

Irrigation  by  means  of  Artesian  wells  in  Northern  Africa,  54-56. 
Methods  of  boring,  and  conditions  in  the  Sahara,  55,  56. 
Prospects  of  redeeming  the  Sahara,  56. 

Artesian  wells  in  the  Eastern  United  States,  56-61.  Ideas  for- 
merly generally  held  with  regard  to  procuring  water  by 
means  of  deep  bored  wells,  56,  57.  Attempts  to  procure 
water  in  this  way  in  Boston  and  New  York,  57.  Deep 
wells  in  New  York,  57. 

Bored  wells  in  Alabama,  and  quality  and  quantity  of  the  water 
thus  obtained,  58.  A.  Winchell  on  the  Artesian  wells  of 
Alabama,  58,  59. 


CONTENTS.  Xiii 

Water-supply  of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  59-61.  Artesian  wells  at 
Charleston,  59-61.  Analyses  of  the  water  from  these 
wells,  60,  61. 

Deep  borings  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  61-67.  Artesian  well 
at  Louisville,  Ky.,  61,  62.  At  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  62.  At 
Columbus  and  Eaton,  and  near  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  63. 
Natural  gas  and  petroleum  in  the  Trenton  limestone  of 
Ohio,  63,  64.  Deep  borings  and  shallow  wells  in  Indiana, 
64.  Quality  of  the  water  obtained  from  deep  borings  in 
Indiana,  65.  Attempts  to  obtain  Artesian  water  in 
Illinois,  65,  67.  Deep  borings  at  Chicago,  65,  66.  At 
other  localities  in  Illinois,  66,  67. 

Mineral  springs  and  Artesian  -wells  of  Wisconsin,  67—73. 
Regions  in  Wisconsin  designated  by  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey as  areas  of  favorable  probabilities  for  Artesian  wells, 
67,  78.  Classification  of  the  Artesian  wells  of  Wisconsin 
with  reference  to  the  geological  position  of  the  rocks  from 
which  the  water  is  derived,  68.  Wells  in  the  drift  of 
Wisconsin,  and  quality  of  the  water  obtained,  68,  69. 
Bored  wells  in  the  Niagara  limestone  of  Wisconsin,  69, 
70.  Wells  in  the  Galena  and  Trenton  limestones  in  Wis- 
consin, 70.  In  the  St.  Peters  sandstone  at  Sheboygan, 
Milwaukee,  and  Racine,  70,  71.  Wells  in  the  Potsdam 
sandstone  in  Wisconsin,  71.  Mineral  springs  and  wells 
north  of  the  Wisconsin  River,  71-73.  At  Sparta,  71.  At 
La  Crosse  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  72,  73. 

Water-supply  of  Iowa,  73-78.  Conditions  of  water-supply  in 
Iowa,  discussed  in  the  State  Geological  reports,  73,  74. 
R.  E.  Call's  investigations  of  the  Iowa  Artesian  wells, 
74-77.  Wells  in  Iowa  in  the  glacial  drift,  74-76.  Deep 
wells  in  Iowa  obtaining  water  from  the  St.  Peters  sand- 
stone, 76.  Quality  of  the  water  furnished  by  the  Artesian 
wells  of  Iowa,  77.  "  Magnetic  "  and  medicinal  waters  of 
Iowa,  77,  78. 


XiV  CONTEXTS. 

•Water-supply  pf  Minnesota,  78-81.  Shallow  wells  in  Minnesota, 
78.  Shallow  flowing  wells,  or  "  fountains,"  in  Minnesota, 
78,  79.  Quality  of  the  water  from  the  "fountains"  of 
Minnesota,  79.  Artesian  wells  at  Red  Wing,  79.  Near 
St.  Paul,  80.  At  Mendota  and  Hastings,  81. 

Mineral  springs  and  Artesian  wells  of  Missouri,  81-83.  Analysis 
of  the  water  of  the  Belcher  well,  St.  Louis,  82.  Analyses 
of  waters  from  other  Artesian  wells  in  Missouri,  82,  88. 

Mineral  waters  and  springs  of  Arkansas,  83.  Climatic  condi- 
tions of  Texas,  84. 

Artesian  wells  in  the  Coast  region  of  Texas,  84-86.  Artesian 
wells  at  Galveston,  85,  86.  At  Houston,  86.  Quality  of 
the  water  obtained  from  deep  borings  in  the  States  adja- 
cent to  the  Mississippi  River,  87. 

Water-supply  and  irrigation  in  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States, 
87-232.  Position  of  the  isohyetal  marking  the  boundary 
between  the  sufficiently  and  insufficiently  watered  divisions 
of  the  United  States,  87.  Where  the  irrigation  question 
is  one  of  great  importance,  88. 

Table  showing  the  percentage  of  irrigated  area  in  1890,  and  the 
density  of  the  population  in  1880  and  1890,  in  various  States 
and  Territories  included  within  the  arid  belt,  89.  Circum- 
stances conditioning  the  density  of  the  population  within 
the  arid  belt,  89.  Irrigation  in  Washington  and  Oregon, 
90.  Complete  returns  lacking  for  California  and  Colorado, 
90.  Census  statistics  of  Artesian  wells  for  irrigation  in 
the  western  half  of  the  United  States,  91. 

Sources  of  information  in  regard  to  the  region  of  the  Plains,  91. 
Additional  titles  of  volumes  relating  to  the  irrigation  of 
the  arid  lands  of  the  United  States,  issued  under  govern- 
ment authority,  92.  White  and  Aughey's  report  on  Arte- 
sian wells  on  the  Great  Plains,  92,  93.  Enumeration  of 
the  early  attempts  to  procure  water  on  the  Plains  by 
boring,  under  government  auspices,  93,  94.  Unfavorable 


CONTENTS.  XV 

conclusions  of  White  and  Aughey  as  to  the  possibility  of 
obtaining  Artesian  water  on  the  Plains,  94. 

General  considerations  in  regard  to  the  early  occupation  of  the 
arid  region  of  the  United  States  by  immigrants  and  settlers, 
95-100.  Irregularity  of  the  rainfall  in  regions  where  this 
is  small  in  amount,  96.  The  Great  Plains  naturally  a 
pastoral  or  stock- growing  region,  96.  How  settlers  were 
obliged  to  diminish  the  area  of  their  ranges,  97.  Kesults 
of  too  hasty  occupation  of  a  region  of  small  rainfall,  as 
shown  by  the  census  of  1890,  in  the  case  of  the  Dakotas, 
Nebraska,  and  Kansas,  98,  99.  Additional  statements  to 
the  same  effect  from  other  sources,  99. 

Review  of  the  "Progress  Report"  of  R.  T.  Hiiiton.  Special  Agent 
of  the  "  Artesian  Underflow  and  Irrigation  Investigation," 
100-134.  Nature  of  the  "Underflow"  or  "Undersheet 
Water,"  as  described  by  him,  101.  The  so-called  "  phre- 
atic  waters,"  101.  Supposed  theoretical  proof  of  the  exist- 
ence of  an  available  undersheet  of  water  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  102-105.  Fallacy  of  these  ideas,  102-105. 

What  portion  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  is  in  need  of  irrigation  ? 
102-105.  Incorrectness  of  the  data  used,  and  sources  from 
which  they  were  obtained,  103, 104.  Early  and  later  esti- 
mates of  the  amount  of  rainfall  in  the  Mississippi  and 
Missouri  basins,  103,  104.  Table  of  rainfall  and  of  per- 
centage of  discharge  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries, 
104.  Hinton's  under-estimate  of  the  percentage  of  the 
rainfall  lost  by  evaporation,  105.  Lack  of  precise  data  for 
the  United  States  in  regard  to  percolation  and  evapora- 
tion, 105. 

Experiments  with  the  Dalton  gauge  near  London,  and  their 
results,  105,  106.  Similar  experiments  in  other  parts  of 
Europe,  106. 

Climate  of  the  Great  Plains  very  unfavorable  to  percolation,  106, 
107.  The  author's  experience  in  Colorado,  107. 


CONTENTS. 


Results  obtained  by  the  Artesian,  Underflow,  and  Irrigation 
Investigations  up  to  1891,  108-110.  The  drainage  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  declared  to  be  a  great  source  of  supply 
for  Artesian  wells  over  a  large  part  of  the  United  States, 
108,  109.  Catlin's  ideas  in  regard  to  the  underflow  as  the 
origin  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  110. 

The  "Artesian  Wells  Investigation  Report"  of  1890,  110-121. 
Names  of  the  engineers  and  geologists  employed,  111. 
Principal  results  of  this  survey,  as  summed  up  by  the 
Supervisory  Engineer,  111,  112.  Groups  of  Artesian 
wells  in  the  region  examined,  geographically  located  by 
the  General  Field  Geologist,  113.  Principal  facts  in  re- 
gard to  the  Artesian  wells  of  the  James  River  Yalley,  113. 
Quality  of  the  water  of  these  wells,  114.  Artesian  wells  in 
Southwestern  Kansas,  and  near  the  Colorado  line  in  the 
Arkansas  Yalley,  114.  Shallow  wells  in  the  glacial  drift 
in  the  Dakotas,  115.  The  wells  of  the  Denver  Basin,  115, 
116.  Water-supply  of  the  region  in  Colorado  lying  at  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  116.  Presumptions 
in  regard  to  the  similarly  situated  region  in  New  Mexico, 
116.  Failure  of  the  wells  at  Denver,  116.  Wells  in  South- 
western Kansas  obtaining  water  from  the  Tertiary  grit,  116. 
Wells  at  Miles  City,  Montana,  supplied  from  the  Laramie 
group,  117. 

Report  of  E.  S.  Nettleton,  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Artesian,  Under- 
flow, and  Irrigation  Investigation,  117-121.  Geographical 
position  of  lines  surveyed  by  him  across  Nebraska  and 
Kansas  with  reference  to  conditions  of  water-supply,  118. 
Condensed  statement  of  facts  contained  in  his  tables  of 
statistical  information,  118,  119.  Inferences  drawn  from 
this  statement  as  to  the  reality  of  a  general  underflow 
system,  119.  The  real  nature  of  the  water-supply  from 
the  superficial  detritus  in  the  region  reported  on  by  the 
Chief  Engineer,  120.  Relations  of  water-supply  from 
wells  in  general  to  the  amount  of  precipitation,  120,  121. 


CONTENTS. 


Possibility  that  the  water  obtained  from  these  wells  was 
stored  in  the  rocks  during  a  former  period  of  greater  pre- 
cipitation, 121,  122. 

Final  Report  of  the  Artesian  and  Underflow  Investigation,  and 
of  the  Irrigation  Inquiry,  published  in  1892,  122-281.  Titles 
of  the  separate  volumes  of  this  report,  and  names  of  the 
authors,  122,  123.  Valuable  results  claimed  by  the  Special 
Agent  in  charge  to  have  been  accomplished,  123.  Activity 
in  irrigation  enterprises  during  the  year  1891,  124.  In- 
crease of  population  in  the  northern  part  of  the  arid 
region  claimed,  124.  More  evidence  on  this  will  be 
afforded  by  the  results  of  the  next  census,  125.  Slight 
amount  of  change  shown  by  comparison  of  statistics 
given  with  those  of  the  census  of  1890,  125.  Statistics 
of  irrigation  and  population  in  Arizona,  125. 

Ideas  of  the  Special  Agent  in  regard  to  controlling  the  "  con- 
tinental water-supply"  examined  and  criticised,  126-134. 
What  is  meant  by  "continental  water-supply,"  126,  127. 
Dimensions  of  area  drained  by  streams  heading  in  Mon- 
tana, Wyoming,  and  Colorado,  127.  Size  of  the  basin  of 
a  river  and  length  of  its  course  do  not  determine  its  im- 
portance as  a  tributary  stream,  128.  How  it  is  supposed 
that  control  of  the  water-supply  could  possibly  be  effected, 
128-130.  Reservation  of  the  forests,  130.  Necessary 
conditions  of  settlement  and  cultivation  of  a  forested 
country,  131.  Conditions  in  this  respect  of  the  Atlantic 
States,  131.  The  climate  of  New  England  has  not  been 
changed  to  any  perceptible  degree  by  the  removal  of  a 
large  proportion  of  its  forests,  132.  The  distribution  of 
the  isohyetal  lines  not  dependent  on  the  presence  or  ab- 
sence of  forests,  132.  What  causes  do  really  determine 
the  amount  of  the  rainfall  of  any  region,  132.  What 
effects  may  be  produced  in  certain  localities  by  protect- 
ing the  forests,  133.  Diminution  of  the  amount  of  water 
standing  in  lakes  or  flowing  in  rivers  known  to  have  long 

6 


CONTENTS. 

been  going  on  over  much  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  to  be 
still  in  progress,  but  this  desiccation  not  caused  by  the 
agency  of  man,  134.  Any  change  of  this  kind  necessarily 
most  important  and  soonest  perceived  in  regions  of  small 
precipitation,  134. 

Contribution  to  the  Final  Report  of  the  Artesian  and  Underflow 
Investigation,  by  E.  S.  Nettleton,  Chief  Engineer,  135-145. 
Time  for  completing  the  irrigation  investigation  extended 
to  January  1,  1892,  and  distribution  of  work  in  accord- 
ance with  this  change,  135.  Re-examination  of  surveyed 
lines  in  the  valleys  of  the  Arkansas  and  Platte  rivers, 
135.  Value  of  the  work  in  the  Dakota  Artesian  Basin, 
135. 

Pecos  Valley  subterranean  waters,  136-138.  Water  conditions 
in  the  Pecos  Valley  and  the  adjacent  region,  137.  Recent 
change  in  the  character  of  the  Rio  Penasco,  137.  "  China 
holes  "  on  the  table-lands  of  Pecos  Valley,  138. 

Extent  and  availability  of  the  underflow  in  the  Valleys  of  the 
Platte  and  Arkansas,  according  to  the  Chief  Engineer,  139—141. 
Location  of  surveyed  lines,  139.  Negative  results  along 
Cheyenne  and  Sterling  lines,  139.  No  important  addi- 
tions to  the  results  previously  attained  on  the  other  sur- 
veyed lines,  140. 

Movement  of  the  underflow  in  the  river  valleys,  140-141.  Ex- 
periments for  determining  its  velocity,  140.  Reasons  why 
experiments  of  this  kind  can  have  but  little  value,  140, 141. 

Deep  wells  of  the  Dakota  Basin,  142,  143.  Location  of  these 
wells,  and  statistics  of  their  depth  and  flow,  142.  Lack 
of  uniformity  in  the  position  of  the  water-bearing  strata, 
and  in  the  character  of  the  lower  rocks,  142,  143. 

Statements  of  W.  W.  Pollett,  Assistant  Engineer,  in  regard  to  the 
Red  River  Valley  Artesian  Basin,  143,  144.  Geological 
structure  of  this  basin,  and  statistics  of  the  wells,  144. 
Character  of  the  water,  144. 


CONTENTS. 


Belief  of  the  Chief  Engineer,  that  there  has  been  a  recurrence 
of  wet  and  dry  periods  in  the  region  examined  by  him,  144. 
Unsatisfactory  character  of  the  evidence  to  this  effect,  144. 
Real  nature  of  the  phenomena  of  desiccation,  144,  145. 

Report  of  the  Chief  Geologist  of  the  Irrigation  Inquiry,  145-155. 
Titles  of  the  special  reports  contained  in  this  volume,  145. 
Sketch  of  the  geology  of  the  Plains,  145-147.  The  super- 
ficial formations,  "  plains'  marl,"  "  Tertiary  grit,"  etc., 
146,  147.  Difficulty  of  separating  the  Post-Tertiary  from 
the  Tertiary  in  the  Plains  region,  147.  Impropriety  of  the 
use  of  the  term  "  Loess  "  in  this  region,  147.  Wells  in  the 
Tertiary  grit,  147-148.  Importance  of  the  water-supply 
from  the  Tertiary  grit,  149.  The  source  of  this  water  is 
the  rainfall,  149.  Discussion  of  the  question  whether  this 
source  of  supply  is  inexhaustible,  149,  150. 

Discussion  by  the  Chief  Geologist  of  the  meaning  of  the  word 
"underflow,"  151-153.  Exaggerated  ideas  of  the  under- 
flow current  in  the  arid  region,  and  why  they  cannot  be 
accepted  as  correct,  151,  152.  How  the  Chief  Geologist 
wishes  to  limit  the  use  of  the  word  "underflow,"  152. 
Objections  to  this,  and  the  real  nature  of  the  underflow 
explained,  153. 

Remarks  of  the  Chief  Geologist  in  regard  to  the  Artesian  basins  of 
the  Great  Plains,  153,  154.  Their  number  has  not  been 
increased  since  the  publication  of  the  preceding  report, 
but  the  area  of  several  of  these  basins  has  been  enlarged, 
153.  The  James  River  Basin,  Dakota,  and  the  Fort  Worth- 
Waco  Basins,  Texas,  153,  154.  Source  of  the  water  of  the 
wells  of  Coolidge,  in  the  Arkansas  Valley,  154,  155.  Gas 
pressure  and  rock  pressure  as  causes  of  the  rise  of  water 
to  the  surface,  155. 

Report  of  the  Assistant  Geologist  for  Texas  west  of  97°,  the 
Indian  Territory,  and  Eastern  New  Mexico,  155-198.  Occur- 
rence and  availability  of  underground  water,  155-157. 
Extraordinary  ideas  on  this  subject  held  by  many  in  the 


XX  CONTENTS. 

arid  region,  155,  156.  Conditions  controlling  the  distri- 
bution of  the  underground  waters,  156,  157.  Causes  of 
the  failure  of  various  borings  for  Artesian  water,  and  how 
water  may  be  procured  on  the  most  sterile  plains,  157. 

Detailed  account  of  the  Texas -New  Mexico  region,  158-198. 
Topography  and  subdivisions  of  this  region,  158,  159. 
Geographical  limits  of  the  Eastern  Division  of  Texas, 

160.  Position  of  the  isohyetal  lines  in  Texas,  160,  161. 
Geology  of  the  Eastern  Division,  161,  162.     Soil,  rocks, 
flora,  and  water-supply  dependent  on  geological  structure, 

161.  Distribution  of  the  forests  and  prairies  determined 
by  the  character  of  the  soil,  161,  162.     Reference  to  the 
present  author's  publications  on  this  subject,  161.     Fault 
lines  in  the  Eastern  Division  of  Texas,  162. 

Artesian  areas  in  the  Eastern  Division  of  Texas,  163-183.  The 
Coast  Prairie  region,  163, 164.  Artesian  wells  of  Galves- 
ton  and  Houston,  163, 164.  The  Washington  County  Black 
Prairies,  164.  The  Fayette  sands  as  a  source  of  water- 
supply,  164.  The  East  Texas  timbered  region,  164,  165. 
Geological  structure  and  water-supply  of  the  timber  belt, 

164,  165. 

The  Cretaceous  Prairie  region  and  the  Cross  Timbers,  165—168. 
Topographic  features,  soil,  and  vegetation  of  this  district, 

165,  166.     Prosperity  of  the   prairie   region,  166.     The 
Main  Black  Prairie  region  described,  166.     Nature  of  the 
"black-waxy"  soil,  and  the  cause  of  its  dark  color,  166. 
Geological   formations   underlying   the    Black  Prairie  re- 
gion, 167.     The  Lower  Cross  Timbers,  167,  168.     Cause 
of  the  occurrence  of  this  belt  of  timber,  167,  168.     The 
"  prairie  question,"  168. 

The  Grand  Prairie,  168,  169.  Its  elevation  and  geological 
structure,  169.  The  Comanche  Series,  169. 

Water-supply  of  that  part  of  Texas  which  is  underlain  by  Creta- 
ceous rocks,  170-183.  The  Grand  Prairie  drainage  system, 


CONTENTS.  Xxi 

170-173.  Geographical  position  of  the  Edwards  Plateau, 
170.  Its  value  as  a  great  water-reservoir,  171.  Springs 
and  rivers  running  from  the  Edwards  Plateau,  71.  The 
springs  of  San  Antonio,  Del  Rio,  San  Marcos,  and  Austin, 
172.  These  are  all  derived  from  the  Trinity  sands,  173. 

Artesian  well  system  of  the  Grand  and  Black  Prairies,  173-183. 
Extent  of  this  Artesian  area,  173.  Wells  of  Fort  Worth, 

174.  Formations  furnishing  the  Artesian  water  of  the 
Black  and  Grand  Prairie  region,  174,  175.     Dallas-Potts- 
boro   group   of  Artesian   wells,  175.      The   Lower  Cross 
Timber,  or  Dakota,  sands  furnish  the  water  of  these  wells, 

175.  Area  occupied  by  the  Dakota  sands  in  Texas,  and 
rainfall  on  this  formation,  175.     Artesian  and  non-flowing 
wells  in  the  Dakota  sands,  176.      Artesian  wells  of  the 
Fort  Worth- Waco  region,  176-181.     Wells  in  this  district 
obtaining  their  water  from  the  Paluxy  sands,  176,  177. 
Importance  of  these  wells,  177.     Wells  of  Waco  deriving 
their  water  from  the  Trinity  sands,  177,  178.     Volume  of 
water  delivered  by  the  Artesian  wells  of  Waco,  177.    Depth 
of  these  wells,  178.     Quality  of  the  water  of  the  Waco 
wells,   178.     Deep   borings   at   Fort   Worth,   179.     High 
expectations  in  regard  to  the  future  importance  of  the 
Fort  Worth  Artesian  wells,  179, 180.     Asserted  purity  of 
the  water  from  these  wells,  180.      Limits   of  the  Fort 
Worth -Waco  system,  181. 

The  Black  and  Grand  Prairie  region  south  of  the  Colorado,  181, 
182.  The  Edwards  Plateau,  181,  182.  Springs  on  the 
eastern  edge  of  this  plateau,  182. 

Value  of  the  Artesian  -waters  of  the  Black  and  Grand  Prairies, 
182, 183.  Absence  of  information  in  regard  to  the  com- 
position of  these  waters,  183. 

The  Red  Beds  region  of  Texas,  Oklahoma,  and  New  Mexico,  183, 
184.  Geographical  position  and  geological  structure  of 
the  Red  Beds  region,  184.  Scantiness  and  irregularity 


XXli  CONTENTS. 

of  the  precipitation  in  this  region,  185.  "  Ked  rises," 
185.  Water  conditions  of  the  Red  Beds  region,  185. 
Quality  of  the  water  of  this  region,  185. 

The  Llano  Estacado,  185-189.  Extent  of  the  Llano,  186. 
Origin  and  meaning  of  the  name,  185,  186.  Topographic 
features,  scenery,  and  drainage  of  the  Llano,  187.  Char- 
acter of  its  superficial  covering,  187.  No  surface  water 
on  the  Llano,  and  reasons  for  this  condition  of  things,  188. 
Irregularity  of  the  precipitation  in  this  region,  188.  Water 
can  be  had  on  the  Llano  from  deep  wells  in  the  mortar 
beds  and  grits,  189.  No  Artesian  water  has  as  yet  been 
obtained  on  the  Llano,  189.  Absence  of  information  in 
regard  to  the  quality  of  the  water  from  the  wells  of  the 
Llano,  189. 

The  Trans-Fecos  or  Basin  region,  189-198.  Topography  of  the 
Great  Basin,  190,  192.  Great  Salt  Lake  and  Humboldt 
Lake,  190,  191.  Climatic  conditions  of  the  Great  Basin, 

191.  The  Colorado  River,  191.     The  regions  south  and 
southwest  of  the  Great  Basin  proper,  192.     Changes  in 
the  orography  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  this  direction, 

192.  Development  of   "  mesas "  and  "  basin   plains "  in 
New  Mexico  and  Western  Texas,  193.     Lack  of  accurate 
maps  of  this  region,  193.     The  Organ-Hueco  basin,  193, 
194.     The  Mesilla  Basin,  194,  195.     Climatic  and  water 
conditions   of  these   and   other   similar  basins,  194-196. 
Records  of  wells  on  the  Lanoria  Mesa,  195.     Depth  and 
character  of  the  water  from  flowing  wells  at  Pecos  City, 
196. 

Summing  up  of  the  "water  conditions  of  the  inter-mountain  plains 
or  basins,  197.  Death  Valley  and  the  Jornada  del  Muerto, 
197.  Sanguine  expectations  of  a  citizen  of  the  driest  part 
of  Nevada,  198. 

Examination  of  the  Report  of  L.  E.  Hicks  on  the  Underflow,  etc. 
of  Nebraska,  198-210.  Geological  structure  of  the  region, 


CONTENTS.  Xxiii 

199.  Rainfall  and  water  conditions  of  Nebraska,  199,  200. 
The  rivers  of  that  State  were  once  much  larger  than  they 
now  are,  200,  201.  Explanation  of  this,  202,  203.  The 
underflow  described,  203,  204.  Sheet  waters,  204.  Geol- 
ogy of  the  region  examined,  204.  Water  conditions  of  the 
superficial  detrital  material,  204,  205.  The  annual  rise  of 
the  Loup  Rivers  considered  with  reference  to  the  question 
of  the  velocity  of  the  underflow,  205,  206.  Real  character 
of  the  phenomena,  206.  Irrigational  possibilities  in  Ne- 
braska, 20T,  208.  Survey  of  the  Loup  Valley,  208-210. 
The  Loup  a  typical  river  of  the  plains,  208.  Description 
of  the  Loup  Valley,  200-210.  How  its  climate  may  be 
ameliorated,  210. 

Examination  of  the  Report  of  G.  E.  Culver  on  the  Dakota  Basin, 
210-215.  Geological  condition  of  the  Dakota  Basin,  210- 
212.  Quantity  and  quality  of  the  water,  212.  Geology 
and  water  conditions  of  the  Black  Hills,  213,  214.  Dis- 
tricts in  which  "  test  wells  "  are  considered  desirable,  214. 
Adequacy  of  the  supply,  214,  215. 

Report  of  J.  W.  Gregory,  Special  Agent,  on  the  Mid-Plains 
Division  of  the  Artesian  and  Underflow  Investigation,  215— 
231.  Boundaries  of  his  field  of  investigation,  215.  Special 
object  of  this  investigation,  215.  Surface  characteristics  of 
the  region  examined,  216.  Its  climate,  216,  217.  What 
is  needed  to  make  it  densely  populous,  217.  Meaning 
and  use  of  the  name  "  Great  American  Desert,"  217. 
Deserts,  barrens,  and  tundras,  217.  Statistics  of  the 
rainfall  of  this  region,  218.  Minimum  amount  of 
rainfall  necessary  for  the  success  of  agriculture,  219. 
Opinions  of  the  Chief  Signal  Officer  on  this  point,  219. 
Irrigation  of  the  arid  region  not  an  absolute  necessity, 
219,  220.  Successful  experiments  in  timber-culture  with- 
out irrigation,  220.  An  ideal  development  of  the  Plains 
region  described,  220.  How  this  might  have  been  brought 


CONTENTS. 

about,  220,  221.  What  has  really  happened  on  the  Plains, 
221.  Sanguine  expectations  in  regard  to  the  future  devel- 
opment of  the  Plains,  222.  By  what  means  this  is  to  be 
effected,  222,  223.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment to  interfere  in  behalf  of  the  settlers  on  the  Plains, 

223.  Artesian  wells  on  the  Plains  are  of  little  or  no  value, 

224.  The  underflow,  224-231.     Its  mode  of  occurrence 
illustrated  by  diagrams,  225.     Attempts  to  determine  its 
rate  of  flow,  225,  226.     Statements  of  citizens  of  the  Plains 
in  regard  to  the  abundance  of  the  underflow  water,  226. 
The  underflow  believed  to  appear  on  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  in  the  form  of  fresh  water  springs, 
226,  227.     Testimony  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast 
Survey  in  reference  to  this,  226,  227.     Modes  of  utilizing 
the  underflow  or  sheet  waters  of  the  Plains,  227-231.     The 
"fountain  method,"  228,  229.     Examples  of  the  applica- 
tion of  this  method,  228,  229.     Conditions  at  Garden  City, 
Kansas,   229.      Method   adopted   in   Persia  for   bringing 
water  from  a  distance,  229.     Objections  to  the  fountain 
method  refuted,  230.     Immense  development  of  the  Great 
Plains  possible  by  means  of  this  method,  231. 

F.  H.  Newell ;  Statistics  of  Irrigation  contained  in  Extra 
Census  Bulletin,  No.  23,  231,  232.  Tabular  statement  of 
areas  irrigated  and  of  percentage  character  of  irrigated 
crops,  232. 

Fourth  Irrigation  Report  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey 
examined,  233-274.  Contents  of  the  Report,  233,  234. 

F.  H.  Newell  on  Water  Supply  for  Irrigation,  234-247.  Water 
supply  available  as  determined  by  the  character  of  the 
vegetation  in  the  region  requiring  irrigation,  234-237. 
Estimate  of  the  areas  furnishing  water  and  of  the  whole 
amount  of  water  available  for  irrigation  in  the  arid  region, 
237.  Fluctuations  of  rivers  and  lakes,  238, 240.  Seasonal 
or  periodic  oscillations,  238.  Non-periodic  oscillations, 


CONTENTS.  XXV 

239.  Extraordinary  amount  of  precipitation  in  1884,  and 
inferences  therefrom,  230.  Bruckner's  work  on  climatic 
fluctuations,  239,  240.  Fluctuations  of  lakes  and  rivers 
due  to  climatic  forces  world-wide  in  extent,  240.  Subsur- 
face waters,  240-243.  Statistics  of  irrigation  by  means  of 
Artesian  wells,  241.  Ordinary  wells  on  the  Great  Plains, 
241.  Nature  of  the  underflow,  241,  242.  Are  the  subsur- 
face waters  stationary?  242.  The  fountain  method  not  a 
success,  243,  244.  Cost  and  value  of  water-supply,  244- 
246.  Probable  sources  of  error  in  these  computations, 
246.  Drainage  basins  of  the  Missouri,  Yellowstone,  and 
Platte  rivers,  246.  Character  of  the  discharge  of  the 
principal  streams  gauged,  246,  247, 

Report  of  H.  M.  Wilson  on  American  Irrigation  Engineering,  247- 
274.  Object  of  this  report,  247.  Artesian  wells  for  irri- 
gation, 248.  Definition  of  the  term  "underflow,"  248. 
The  fountain  method,  248,  249.  Utilization  of  the  great 
rivers  for  irrigation,  249.  Desirability  of  storage  reser- 
voirs, 250.  The  duty  of  water,  250.  Irrigation  in  India, 
251-256.  Contrast  between  the  conditions  affecting  irri- 
gation in  India  and  in  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States, 
251-253.  Relation  of  the  government  to  irrigation  in  the 
United  States,  252.  The  conditions  from  this  point  of 
view  in  India,  253.  The  question  of  the  formation  of  alka- 
line deposits  as  a  consequence  of  irrigation  discussed, 
254-256.  Discussion  of  the  question  of  the  character  of 
the  water  to  be  used  for  irrigation,  256,  257.  History 
of  irrigation  and  of  legislation  relating  to  it  in  the  United 
States,  257-259.  Early  practice  of  irrigation  in  Arizona, 
257,  258.  In  California  and  Utah,  258,  259.  Present  con- 
dition of  irrigation  in  California,  Colorado,  and  Utah,  259, 
260.  Legislation  and  administration,  260,  261.  Present 
status  of  the  irrigational  work  done  under  the  direction  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  261.  Present  con- 
dition of  the  laws  regulating  the  acquirement  of  title  to 


xxvi  CONTENTS. 

irrigable  lands,  261,  262.  Description  of  various  engineer- 
ing works,  262,  263.  Water  storage,  263-270.  San  Diego 
Flume  Company,  264,  265.  Merced  Reservoir,  265.  Long 
Valley  Reservoir,  265,  266.  Walnut  Grove  Reservoir,  266. 
Castlewood  Reservoir,  266,  267.  Bear  Valley  Reservoir, 
267,  268.  Rainfall  in  Bear  Valley,  267.  Sweetwater 
Reservoir,  268.  Lake  Hemet  Water  Company,  268. 
Arrowhead  Reservoir  Company,  269.  Water-supply  of 
Denver,  269,  270.  Subsurface  sources  of  supply,  270-272. 
The  underflow,  270.  Pumping  wells,  271.  Submerged 
dams,  271,  272.  American  Water  Company's  works,  271. 
Submerged  dam  on  Pacoima  Creek,  272.  Relative  impor- 
tance of  pumping  wells,  272.  Engineering  results  of  the 
Irrigation  Survey,  272-274.  Methods  by  which  the  work 
has  been  conducted,  272,  273.  Surveys  of  various  drainage 
basins,  274. 

General  Remarks  on  Irrigation,  274-282.  Discrepancies  in  the 
views  of  writers  on  the  arid  region,  274,  275.  Gradual 
relinquishment  of  some  of  the  earlier  exaggerated  ideas 
held  by  irrigational  officials,  275.  Inadequate  natural  sup- 
ply of  water  a  great  disadvantage,  275.  Density  of  pop- 
ulation as  affected  by  dryness  of  climate,  275.  No  nation 
occupying  a  commanding  position  except  in  a  region  of 
adequate  precipitation,  275.  The  arid  part  of  the  United 
States  will  never  be  densely  populated,  276.  Importance 
of  certain  parts  of  the  arid  region,  on  account  of  the 
extent  and  value  of  their  deposits  of  metalliferous  ores, 
276.  Duration  of  these  deposits,  276.  The  Great  Plains, 
their  present  condition  and  future  prospects,  277.  Arte- 
sian wells,  general  remarks  on,  278-280.  Relative  impor- 
tance of  Artesian  wells,  278.  The  typical  basin  structure 
not  present  in  the  Artesian  wells  of  the  United  States, 
278.  Conditions  producing  Artesian  pressure  where  the 
basin  structure  is  absent,  278-280.  Rock  pressure,  279. 
Gas  pressure,  280.  Water  supply  by  means  of  storage 


CONTENTS.  XXvii 

reservoirs,  280-282.     Difficulties  and  dangers  of  storage 
reservoirs,  281.     Plan  of  having  the  General  Government 
build  and  manage  storage  reservoirs,  281,  282. 
Supplementary   Note.      Artesian   wells   in   Eastern  Virginia, 
Maryland,  Delaware,  and  New  Jersey,  282. 


APPENDIX. 

A.  Latest  statistics  of  Immigration,  with  additional  remarks 
on  Immigration  in  general,  and  on  the  present  status  of 
the  Chinese  in  the  United  States,  285-289. 

B.  Brief  Discussion  of  the  Question  whether  Changes  of  Cli- 
mate can  be  brought  about  by  the  Agency  of  Man,  and  on 
Secular  Climatic  Changes  in  general,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  Arid  Region  of  the  United  States,  290-317. 

0.  List  of   United   States   Official   Publications   relating  to 
Irrigation  and  Matters  connected  therewith,  318-324. 


POPULATION,    IMMIGRATION,   AND 
IRRIGATION. 


I.    POPULATION. 

'r~PHE  first  census  of  the  United  States  was  taken  in 
•*•  1790,  and  there  has  been  one  taken  every  tenth 
year  since  that  time.  The  following  table  shows  the 
absolute  number  of  inhabitants,  "  excluding  Indians 
not  taxed,"  at  each  decennial  period,  and  also  the  rate 
per  cent  of  increase  during  the  previous  ten  years  :  — 

Year.  Population.  Percentage  of 

Increase. 

1790 3,929,214 

1800 5,308,483  35.11 

1810 7,239,881  36.40 

1820 9,633,822  33.06 

1830 12,806,020  33.55 

1840 17,069,453  32.67 

1850 23,191,876  35.86 

1860 31,443,321  35.58 

1870 38,558,371  22.63 

1880 50,155,783  30.08 

1890 62,622,250  24.86 

The  population  of  the  United  States  on  June  1, 1890, 
as  shown  by  the  final  count,  exclusive  of  Indians  and 

i 


2  GROWTH  OF  THE   POPULATION. 

other  persons  in  Indian  territory,  on  Indian  reserva- 
tion, and  in  Alaska,  was  62,622,250 ;  including  these 
persons  the  population  was  62,979,766.  In  1880  the 
population  with  the  same  exclusions  was  50,155,783. 
The  absolute  increase  of  the  population  in  the  ten 
years  intervening  was  12,466,467,  and  the  percentage 
of  increase  was  24.86.  In  1870  the  population  was 
stated  as  38,558,371.  According  to  these  figures  the 
absolute  increase  in  the  decade  between  1870  and  1880 
was  11,597,412,  and  the  percentage  of  increase  was 
30.08. 

The  effect  of  the  Civil  War  on  the  growth  of  popula- 
tion in  the  United  States  is  easily  seen  in  the  dimin- 
ished ratio  of  increase  shown  by  the  figures  for  the 
decade  1860-70.  With  that  exception,  the  rate  has 
been  extraordinarily  large  and  uniform,  but  less  in 
the  decade  1870-80  than  in  any  preceding  one,  and 
still  less  in  the  decade  1880-90.1  That  this  rapid 
growth  of  the  population,  due  in  so  large  a  part  to 


1  The  following  statement,  made  in  the  volume  devoted  to  Population, 
in  the  Final  Census  Report  of  1890,  gives  an  explanation  of  how,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Superintendent  of  this  Census,  these  anomalies  are  to  be 
accounted  for :  "  Upon  their  face  these  figures  show  that  the  population 
increased  869,055  more  between  1880  and  1890  than  between  1870  and 
1880,  while  the  rate  of  increase  has  apparently  diminished  from  30.08  to 
24.86  per  cent.  If  these  figures  were  derived  from  correct  data,  they 
would  be  disappointing.  Such  a  reduction  in  the  rate  of  increase,  in 
the  face  of  the  heavy  immigration  during  the  past  ten  years,  would  argue 
a  diminution  in  the  fecundity  of  the  population,  or  a  corresponding  in- 
crease in  its  death  rate.  These  figures  are,  however,  easily  explained 
when  the  character  of  the  data  used  is  understood.  It  is  well  known, 
the  fact  having  been  demonstrated  by  extensive  and  thorough  investi- 
gation, that  the  census  of  1870  was  grossly  deficient  in  the  Southern 
States,  so  much  so  as  not  only  to  give  an  exaggerated  rate  of  increase 
of  the  population  between  1870  and  1880  in  these  States,  but  to  affect 
materially  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  country  at  large." 


MOVEMENT  OF  THE  POPULATION.  3 

immigration,  will  continue  to  be  maintained  is  in  the 
highest  degree  improbable.  The  fact  that  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  more  valuable  portion  of  the  public  lands 
has  been  already  taken  up  can  hardly  fail  to  check 
immigration,  although  the  population  is  at  present 
far  from  dense,  and  far  from  being  so  large  that  there 
is  not  ample  room  for  a  much  larger  number. 

The  area  embraced  within  the  United  States  at  the 
time  of  taking  the  first  census  was  about  eight  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  square  miles,  a  precise  statement 
of  the  amount  being  impossible,  owing  to  the  peculiar 
wording  of  that  part  of  the  treaty  in  which  the 
northern  and  western  boundaries  of  the  country  are 
defined.  The  density  of  the  population  at  that  time 
was  about  4.6  persons  per  square  mile,  this  population 
being  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board. At  that  time  not  more  than  five  per  cent  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  country  lived  west  of  the  Appa- 
lachian range,  the  settlements  being  very  closely  lim- 
ited to  the  borders  of  the  navigable  streams.  At  the 
time  of  taking  the  census  of  1850,  the  boundaries  of 
the  United  States  had  become  definitely  established, 
the  only  addition  made  since  that  time  being  the  terri- 
tory acquired  in  1853  by  the  Gadsden  purchase  (about 
47,330  square  miles).  At  that  time  the  average  den- 
sity of  the  population  of  the  whole  country  was  a 
little  less  than  eight  persons  per  square  mile. 

The  following  table  shows  the  density  of  the  popula- 
tion at  the  epoch  of  each  census  which  has  been  taken 
during  the  time  when  the  area  of  the  country  remained 
(with  the  exception  of  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  not  here 
included)  unchanged  :  — 


MOVEMENT  OF   THE  POPULATION. 


Tear.  Area  of  U.  S. 

1860  ...........  3,025,600  10.39 

1870  ...........          "  12.74 

1880  ..........    .          "  16.57 

1890  ...........          "  20.70 

The  movement  of  the  population  has,  from  the  be- 
ginning, been  from  the  east  toward  the  west,  the  first 
settlements  having  been  made  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  the  emigration  to  the  United  States  having  been 
almost  exclusively  from  European  countries.  The 
Pacific  coast  had,  previously  to  the  annexation  of  Cali- 
fornia, received  a  small  number  of  whites  coming  from 
Mexico,  and  since  that  time  there  have  been  some 
accessions  to  the  population  in  that  region  by  means 
of  emigration  from  China  ;  but  the  number  added  from 
this  direction  is  almost  insignificant  in  comparison  with 
that  which  has  come  into  the  country  from  the  east. 
Hence  the  centre  of  population  has  been  moving  west- 
ward, and  the  investigations  of  the  Coast  Survey  and 
of  the  Census  Bureau  have  shown  that  this  movement 
has  been  in  an  almost  exactly  westerly  direction,  and 
that  the  centre  of  population  has  always  remained  very 
near  the  parallel  of  39°.  In  1790  it  was  in  latitude 
39°  16'.5,  at  a  point  about  twenty-three  miles  east  of 
Baltimore  ;  in  1880  it  was  eight  miles  west  by  south 
from  Cincinnati,  in  latitude  39°  4'.1,  having  moved 
westward  457  miles  in  ninety  years  ;  in  1890  it  was 
in  latitude  39°  11'  56",  and  in  longitude  85°  32'  53", 
having  moved  westward  in  the  preceding  ten  years 
53'  13",  or  about  forty-eight  miles,  and  northward 
7'  48",  or  about  nine  miles.  It  rests  now  in  Southern 
Indiana,  at  a  point  a  little  west  of  south  of  Greens- 


MOVEMENT  OF   THE  POPULATION.  5 

burg,  the  county  seat  of  Decatur  County,  and  twenty 
miles  east  of  Columbus,  Indiana.  The  most  southerly 
point  reached  was  that  of  1830,  when  the  centre 
was  in  latitude  38°  57'.9  ;  the  most  rapid  movement 
was  in  the  period  1850-60,  namely,  eighty-one  miles, 
this  being  due  to  the  rapid  transfer  of  a  consid- 
erable population  from  the  Eastern  to  the  Pacific 
States,  consequent  on  the  discovery  of  the  gold  of 
California. 

The  percentage  division  of  the  population  by  sexes,  as 
shown  by  the  censuses  of  1850-90,  was  as  follows  :  — » 

1850.        1860.        1870.        1880.        1890. 

Males  51.04          51.16          50.56          50.88          51.21 

Females        48.96          48.84          49.44          49.12          48.79 

The  number  of  females  for  each  100,000  males  in 
1870,  1880,  and  1890  was  as  follows  :  — 

1870.  1880.  1890. 

Number  of  females  to  100,000  males        97,801      96,544      95,280 

As  a  natural  result  of  the  conditions  influencing  emi- 
gration from  the  older  to  the  newer  States,  it  is  found 
that  females  are  in  excess  in  the  Atlantic  States.  In 
1880  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Massachusetts  the  excess  of  females  over  males  was 
five  per  cent  or  more ;  in  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  New  York,  Virginia, 
and  Alabama  it  was  from  two  and  a  half  to  five  per 
cent ;  in  Maryland,  Georgia,  New  Jersey,  Louisiana, 
Tennessee,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maine  it  was  less  than 
two  and  a  half  per  cent.  The  States,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  which  the  males  were,  in  1880,  considerably 
in  excess  of  the  females,  were  those  situated  in  the 


6  DISTRIBUTION  OF   THE  SEXES. 

Cordilleran  region,  where  mining  is  the  chief  pursuit, 
and  where  the  conditions  of  life  are  such  as  are  more 
easily  borne  by  men  than  by  women.  In  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Kansas,  and  Nebraska,  which  are  not  Cor- 
dilleran States,  but  which  are  on  the  extreme  northern, 
western,  or  southwestern  borders  of  the  Central  region, 
the  number  of  females  was  from  eighty  to  ninety  per 
cent  of  that  of  the  males,  and  New  Mexico  was  in  the 
same  category.  In  the  Pacific  Coast  States  in  1880 
the  number  of  females  was  from  fifty  to  eighty  per 
cent  that  of  the  males ;  and  the  same  was  true  of 
Colorado  and  Dakota,  which  are  situated  on  the  east- 
ern borders  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  which  are 
partly  agricultural  and  partly  mining  States.  In  those 
States  in  which  mining  and  stock-raising  are  by  far 
the  predominating  interests,  and  which  are  entirely 
enclosed  in  the  Cordilleras,  namely,  Idaho,  Nevada, 
Wyoming,  Arizona,  and  Montana,  the  inequality  in 
the  numbers  of  the  sexes  is  greatest,  there  being  in 
1880  in  these  Territories  less  than  half  as  many  females 
as  males. 

Since  1880  the  conditions  of  the  population  of  sev- 
eral of  the  States  in  regard  to  sex  have  altered  mate- 
rially. Thoughout  the  country  at  large  there  has  been 
an  increase  in  the  proportion  of  males,  and  this  increase 
has  resulted  in  transferring  from  the  list  of  States  in 
which  in  1880  females  were  in  excess,  to  those  which 
in  1890  males  were  in  excess,  no  fewer  than  six 
States  —  namely,  Maine,  Pennsylvania,  Georgia,  Ala- 
bama, Louisiana,  and  Tennessee :  in  general  it  has 
increased  the  proportion  of  males  in  the  Northern  and 
Southern  Central  States.  The  development  of  more 


COLORED  POPULATION.  7 

settled  conditions  in  the  extreme  western  group  of 
States  and  Territories  has,  on  the  other  hand,  reduced 
the  proportion  of  males  in  that  region.  The  whole 
number  of  States  and  Territories  in  which,  in  1890, 
the  females  exceeded  the  males  was  eleven,  as  against 
seventeen  in  1880.  All  of  the  States  and  Territories 
which,  in  1890,  showed  an  excess  of  females  are  found 
in  the  North  Atlantic  and  South  Atlantic  divisions, 
as  was  also  true  of  the  States  and  Territories  having, 
in  1880,  an  excess  of  females  over  males,  with  the 
exception  of  Alabama,  Louisiana,  and  Tennessee  in  the 
South  Central  division.  In  1880  there  were  five  States 
and  Territories  in  which  the  number  of  females  was 
less  than  fifty  per  cent  of  that  of  the  males  —  namely, 
Idaho,  Nevada,  Wyoming,  Arizona,  and  Montana ;  while 
in  1890  there  was  no  State  or  Territory  in  which  there 
were  not  at  least  half  as  many  females  as  males.  In 
1890  there  were  eleven  States  and  Territories,  mainly 
in  the  Cordilleran  division,  in  which  the  number  of 
females  was  between  fifty  and  eighty  per  cent  of  that 
of  the  males,  as  against  five  States  and  Territories 
under  like  conditions  in  1880. 

Of  the  colored  population  the  census  of  1880  showed 
the  number  to  be  6,580,793  to  43,402,970  whites,  or 
15,162  colored  in  every  100,000  whites.  The  census 
of  1890  showed  that,  out  of  a  total  population  of 
62,622,250,  the  persons  of  African  descent  numbered 
7,470,040.  In  addition  there  were  enumerated  107,475 
Chinese,  2,039  Japanese,  and  58,806  Indians  competent 
to  be  enrolled  among  the  general  population,  making 
the  total  colored  element  of  the  country  7,638,360,  as 
compared  with  a  total  white  population  of  54,983,390. 


8  POPULATION  AND  IMMIGRATION. 

The  percentage  of  the  white  and  colored  population 
(including  in  the  latter  only  those  of  African  descent) 
was,  from  1790  to  1890,  as  follows :  — 

1790.  1800.  1810.  1820,  1830.  1840.  1850.  1860.  1870.  1880.  1890. 
White  80.73  81.12  80.97  81.61  81.90  83.16  84.31  85.62  87.11  86.54  87.89 
Colored  19.27  18.88  19.03  18.39  18.10  16.84  15.69  1413  12.66  13.12  11.93 

The  uniform  slowness  with  which  the  colored  popu- 
lation has  decreased  from  being  nearly  one  fifth  of  the 
total  to  being  only  a  little  more  than  one  tenth  is 
indeed  remarkable. 

The  colored  population  is  still,  in  spite  of  some  slight 
emigration,  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  former  slave 
States,  and  in  three  of  them  —  South  Carolina,  Missis- 
sippi, and  Louisiana  —  the  colored  are  in  excess  of  the 
whites.  In  Alabama,  Georgia,  Florida,  Virginia,  and 
North  Carolina  the  colored  represented,  in  1890,  more 
than  fifty  per  cent  of  the  white  population,  and  the 
same  was  true  of  these  States  in  1880.  In  four  States  — 
Arkansas,  Tennessee,  Texas,  and  Maryland  —  the  col- 
ored population  represented,  both  in  1880  and  in  1890, 
from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  white.  In  the 
District  of  Columbia,  in  1880,  there  were  more  than  half 
as  many  colored  as  white,  and  in  1890  there  were  48.85 
of  the  former  to  100  of  the  latter.  In  Kentucky  and 
Delaware,  both  in  1880  and  in  1890,  the  colored  repre- 
sented between  ten  and  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the 
white  population.  Of  the  remaining  States  and  Ter- 
ritories ten  had  in  1890,  as  against  eight  in  1880,  a 
colored  population  representing  from  two  to  ten  per 
cent  of  the  white,  while  in  twenty-four  the  colored 
element  represented  less  than  two  per  cent  of  the 
white,  both  in  1880  and  in  1890. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  POPULATION.  9 

The  number  of  Chinese  in  the  country  increased  only 
to  a  trifling  extent  between  1880  and  1890,  —  namely, 
from  105,465  to  107,475.  As  in  1880,  so  in  1890,  by 
far  the  greater  portion  of  them  are  found  in  the  Cor- 
dilleran  division,  although  a  perceptible  amount  of 
distribution  over  the  country  in  general  has  taken 
place.  In  1890  the  number  of  Chinese  in  the  Cor- 
dilleran  division  was  96,844,  and  in  1880,  102,102. 
Of  the  total  number  of  Chinese  in  the  country  in  1890, 
a  little  over  two  thirds  (72,472)  were  in  California, 
9,540  in  Oregon,  while  the  remainder  were  scattered 
widely  over  the  country. 

The  distribution  of  the  population  in  reference  to  the 
topographical  and  climatic  features  of  the  country  is 
such  as  naturally  arises  from  the  constant  operation 
of  two  causes,  both  acting  in  the  same  direction.  Emi- 
gration and  overflow  from  a  more  thickly  settled  region 
toward  one  more  thinly  inhabited  takes  place,  with 
insignificant  exceptions,  from  the  east  toward  the  west. 
Immigrants  arrive  from  Europe,  are  landed  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  —  about  three  fourths  at  one  point,  New 
York  —  and  thence  in  large  part  find  their  way  west- 
ward in  the  direction  of  lands  unoccupied  or  only 
thinly  settled.  To  the  east  of  the  Mississippi  the  land 
is  almost  everywhere  exceptionally  fertile,  and  the  cli- 
matic conditions  are  over  a  large  area  very  much  the 
same,  and  on  the  whole  highly  favorable.  Soon  after 
crossing  the  Mississippi  River,  however,  we  find  that 
this  favorable  condition  of  things  begins  to  change. 
Not  only  is  the  immigrant  getting  farther  and  farther 
from  his  home,  but  he  is  finding  his  environment 
less  and  less  suited  to  the  development  of  those 
conditions  which  favor  the  existence  of  a  dense  popu- 


10      POPULATION  AND   TOPOGRAPHICAL  FEATURES. 

lation.  Never  by  any  possibility  can  the  region  of 
small  rainfall  and  in  large  part  of  rugged  moun- 
tains, extending  from  the  first  belt  of  States  beyond 
the  Mississippi  to  the  belt  lying  directly  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast,  become  a  densely  populated  portion  of  the 
country.  This  dryer  region  is  throughout  its  entire 
extent  also  the  most  elevated.  The  results  of  the 
conditions  thus  indicated  are  sufficiently  shown  by  the 
following  figures. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  POPULATION  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  1880  AND 
IN  1890,  BY  DRAINAGE  BASINS. 


1880. 

1890. 

sq.  miles. 

Total. 

Per  sq. 
mile. 

Total. 

Per 
sq.  mile. 

New  England  Coast     . 
Middle  Atlantic  Coast  . 
South  Atlantic  Coast  . 
Great  Lakes    .... 
Gulf  of  Mexico    .    .    . 

61,830 
83,020 
132,040 
175,340 
1,725,980 

3,811,102 
9,646,057 
3,705,807 
5,377,019 
26,167,367 

61.6 
116.2 
28.1 
30.7 
15.2 

4,486,813 
11,482,411 
2,248,466 
7,009,839 
32,993,234 

72.6 
138.31 
32.18 
39.98 
19.12 

Total  Atlantic  .    .    . 

Great  Basin     .... 
Pacific  Ocean  .... 

2,178,210 

228,150 
619,240 

48,707,352 

210,998 
1,237,433 

22.4 

0.9 
2.0 

60,220,763 

256,130 
2,145,357 

27.65 

1.12 
3.46 

Total  

3  025  600 

50  155  783 

62  622,250 

PERCENTAGE  OF  TOTAL  POPULATION  OF  THE  DIFFERENT  DRAINAGE  BASINS. 


Division. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890 

Atlantic  Ocean  

9779 

97.11 

9616 

New  England  Coast  
Middle  Atlantic  Coast    

8.52 
20.85 

7.60 
19.23 

7.16 
18.34 

South  Atlantic  Coast     .    .              .     . 

7.26 

7.39 

6.78 

Great  Lakes  .             .... 

10.96 

10.72 

11.19 

Gulf  of  Mexico 

5020 

5217 

52.69 

Great  Basin       .         ....         . 

0.33 

042 

0.41 

Pacific  Ocean    ,    . 

1.88 

2.47 

3.43 

POPULATION  OF  THE  CITIES. 


11 


GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
IN  ACCORDANCE  WITH  THE  TOPOGRAPHICAL  FEATURES,  1870-1890. 


Population  per  square  mile. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

15.3 
470 
45.8 
35.4 
34.3 
40.7 
31.3 
12.1 
10.3 
12.2 
14.6 
0.1 
0.2 
0.7 
0.2 
0.5 
0.2 
3.8 
3.5 
0.9 
5.8 

18.7 
60.2 
55.8 
38.6 
41.7 
49.4 
38.8 
17.6 
16.0 
18.2 
21.2 
0.4 
0.4 
1.7 
0.5 
0.9 
0.8 
4.6 
5.2 
1.7 
9.8 

21.5 
74.4 
69.5 
40.7 
49.8 
59.3 
44.3 
25.1 
22.8 
23.6 
28.3 
1.4 
1.1 
2.1 
0.7 
1.4 
1.9 
4.9 
9.1 
5.5 
14.3 

Atlantic  Plain    

Piedmont  Region  .              .              . 

New  England  Hills     .         .         

Appalachian  Mountain  Region    

Cumberland  Alleghany  Plateau       • 

Interior  Timbered  Region       .                       . 

Alluvial  Region  of  the  Mississippi  .... 

Great  Plains       

Basin  Region     

Pacific  Valley    

In  regard  to  the  distribution  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  in  towns  and  cities,  and  the  positions  of 
those  centres,  the  following  may  be  stated :  — 

In  1790  there  were  in  the  country  four  cities  having 
a  population  of  from  8,000  to  20,000,  and  two  above 
20,000,  but  not  one  surpassing  75,000  in  number. 
Fifty  years  later,  there  were  forty-four  towns  and  cities 
having  a  population  of  8,000  and  over,  and  one  of 
about  500,000.  In  1880  there  were  286,  and  in  1890 
there  were  448  towns  having  over  8,000  inhabitants. 

In  1870  there  were  fourteen  cities  having  over 
100,000;  in  1880,  twenty;  in  1890,  twenty-eight,  as 
shown  in  the  following  table. 


12 


POPULATION  OF  THE  CITIES. 


Over  1,000,000. 


Population  in 
1880.  1890. 


New  York    .......       1,206,299  1,515,301 

Chicago    .........  503,185  1,099,850 

Philadelphia      .......  847,170  1,046,964 

Over  500,000  and  under  1,000,000. 

Brooklyn      ...     .....  566,663  806,343 

Over  200,000  and  less  than  500,000. 

St.  Louis  .........  350,518  451,770 

Boston     .    .     .     .     .....  362,839  448,477 

Baltimore     ........  332,313  434,439 

San  Francisco   .......  233,959  298,997 

Cincinnati     ........  255,139  296,908 

Cleveland     ........  160,146  261,353 

Buffalo  ..........  155,134  255,664 

New  Orleans     .......  216,090  242,039 

Pittsburg      ........  156,389  238,617 

Washington  ........  147,203  230,392 

Detroit".  ....    3     ....  116,340  205,876 

Milwaukee    ........  115,587  204,468 

Over  100,000  and  less  than  200,000. 

Population  in 

Name.                                                                       1880.  1890. 

Newark   .........  136,508  181,830 

Minneapolis  ........  46,887  164,738 

Jersey  City  ........  120,722  163,003 

Louisville     ........  123,758  161,129 

Omaha  ..........  30,518  140,452 

Kochester     ........  89,366  133,896 

Saint  Paul  .........  41,473  133,156 

Kansas  City  ........  55,785  132,716 

Providence  ........  104,857  132,146 

Denver  ..........  35,629  106,713 

Indianapolis      .......  75,056  105,436 

Allegheny     ........  78,682  105,287 


IMMIGRATION  —  STATISTICS.  13 

According  to  the  census  of  1880,  there  were  thirteen 
cities  having  a  population  of  more  than  50,000  and 
less  than  100,000,  making  a  total  of  thirty-three  cities 
having  over  50,000  inhabitants,  of  which  three  are  sit- 
uated south  of  the  parallel  of  38°  —  namely,  San  Fran- 
cisco (which,  however,  is  very  near  that  parallel),  New 
Orleans,  and  Kichmond.  In  1890  there  were  twenty- 
nine  cities  having  a  population  of  more  than  50,000 
and  less  than  100,000  inhabitants,  making  a  total  of 
fifty-eight  cities  having  over  50,000  inhabitants,  of 
which  eight  are  south  of  the  parallel  of  38°  —  namely, 
San  Francisco,  New  Orleans,  Richmond,  Nashville, 
Atlanta,  Memphis,  Charleston,  and  Los  Angeles. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  and  per- 
centage of  persons  of  native  and  foreign  birth  in  the 
United  States,  as  given  by  each  census  since  such 
statistics  began  to  be  collected :  — 

Date.  Population.  Percentage. 

Native.  Foreign.  Native.  Foreign. 

1850  20,947,274  3,244,602  90.32  9.68 

1860  27,304,624  4,138,697  86.84  13.16 

1870  32,991,162  5,567,229  85.56  14.44 

1880  43,475,840  6,679,943  86.68  13.32 

1890  53,372,703  9,249,547  85.23  14.77 


II.    IMMIGRATION. 

The  subject  of  immigration  into  the  United  States 
has  recently  been  reported  on  very  fully  by  the  Bureau 
of  Statistics,*  and  from  that  report  the  following  con- 

*  See  Quarterly  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  No.  2,  1892-93, 
page  391  et  seq. 


14  IMMIGRATION  — WHERE  FROM. 

densed  statement  of  the  more  important  facts  connected 
with  this  matter  has  been  compiled. 

No  official  records  of  immigration  into  the  United 
States  were  kept  prior  to  1820,  but  the  number  of 
arrivals  from  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  up  to 
that  date  has  been  estimated  at  250,000.  Previous  to 
1856  there  had  been  no  attempt  made  to  distinguish 
immigrants,  or  those  who  came  intending  to  remain 
permanently  in  this  country,  from  those  who  came 
simply  as  visitors  or  as  transient  passengers.  From 
1856  to  1868  a  step  in  advance  was  made  by  giving 
the  total  number  of  immigrants,  separating  them  from 
transient  passengers;  but  since  1868,  not  only  the 
number,  but  the  nationality,  of  the  former  has  been 
carefully  recorded.  Of  course  absolute  accuracy  cannot 
be  expected  in  statistics  of  this  kind.  Thus,  for  in- 
stance, some  persons  come  to  this  country  not  intending 
to  remain,  but  do  become  permanent  residents,  while  the 
converse  of  this  occasionally  happens.  Moreover,  since 
there  is  no  law  providing  for  the  collection  of  the  sta- 
tistics of  immigration  by  land,  arrivals  from  British 
North  America  and  from  Mexico  can  be  only  imper- 
fectly given.  Previous  to  1885  the  attempt  was  made, 
however,  to  include  among  the  immigrants  reported  as 
arriving  in  the  United  States  those  who  came  by  land ; 
but  since  that  time  this  has  been  given  up  as  imprac- 
ticable, owing  to  the  difficulty  of  collecting  information 
on  the  numerous  railway  trains  arriving  from  Canada 
and  Mexico.  It  is  believed  that  the  number  of  immi- 
grants from  Mexico,  or  passing  through  that  country 
on  their  way  to  the  United  States,  is  very  small,  but 
the  number  coming  by  way  of  Canada  is  very  con- 


IMMIGRATION  — WHERE  FROM.  15 

siderable.  The  number  of  immigrants  reported  by  the 
Canadian  officials  as  having  passed  through  that  coun- 
try on  their  way  to  the  United  States  is  given  as 
567,557  for  the  eight  years  ending  with  1892,  an 
average  of  nearly  71,000  per  year,  and  this  fact  should 
be  taken  into  consideration  in  connection  with  what 
here  follows. 

During  the  entire  period  from  1820  to  1892  much 
the  greater  portion  of  the  immigration  into  the  United 
States  has  come  from  Europe,  the  proportion  of  Euro- 
pean immigrants  increasing  from  68.89  per  cent  in 
the  decade  1821-30  to  89.99  in  the  decade  1881-90. 
In  the  very  earliest  period  of  this  immigration  move- 
ment, from  1820  to  1830,  nearly  all  the  countries  of 
Europe  were  represented  to  some  extent,  but  the  total 
number  during  that  time  was  comparatively  small, 
having  increased  from  about  8,000  in  1820  to  a  little 
over  23,000  in  1830.  In  the  forty  years  from  1821  to 
1860,  inclusive,  over  one  half  of  the  immigration  into 
this  country  was  from  England  and  Ireland,  and  the 
greater  portion  was  from  the  last-named  country.  In 
the  decades  1831-40  and  1841-50  one  quarter  of  the 
entire  immigration,  and  from  1851  to  1870  about  one 
third,  was  from  Germany.  Between  1871  and  1892, 
the  proportion  of  German  immigrants  has  varied  be- 
tween a  third  and  a  fifth;  in  1891  and  1892  it  was 
20.65  per  cent,  and  the  average  of  the  entire  period 
from  1821  to  1892  was  28.59  per  cent  of  the  total 
immigration.  The  United  Kingdom  and  Germany 
have,  therefore,  together  furnished  the  bulk  of  the 
immigration  into  the  United  States. 


16 


IMMIGRATION  —  WHERE  FROM. 


During  the  last  two  decades  the  flow  of  population 
into  this  country  from  Scandinavia,  Austro-Hungary, 
Kussia,  and  Italy  has  been  pretty  steadily  increasing 
in  magnitude.  During  the  decade  1881-90,  the  first 
named  of  these  countries  furnished  about  the  same 
percentage  of  the  total  immigration  as  did  Ireland. 
In  the  years  1891  and  1892,  Austro-Hungary,  Italy, 
and  Russia  together  contributed  more  than  two  fifths 
to  the  total  immigration  into  the  United  States. 

The  following  tables  illustrate  the  more  important 
points  connected  with  this  subject :  — 

In  the  first  table  the  total  immigration  into  the 
United  States  from  1821  to  1892,  inclusive,  is  pre- 
sented, and  also  the  division  of  this  total  among  the 
various  countries  which  have  been  the  principal  con- 
tributors to  it. 


TOTAL  IMMIGRATION  INTO  THE  UNITED  STATES  FROM  1821  TO  1892  INCLUSIVE, 
AND  ITS  DISTRIBUTION  AMONG  THE  MORE  IMPORTANT  NATIONALITIES. 


Germany 4,748,440 

Ireland  . 3,592,247 

England 2,534,955 

Norway  and  Sweden    .    .  1,032,188 

Austro-Hungary.    .    .    .  586,666 

Italy 526,749 

Russia 517,507 


France        379,637 

Scotland 347,900 

China 296,219 

Switzerland 185,488 

Denmark 163,769 

All  other  countries  .    .     .  2,700,295 

The  grand  total  is   ...  16,611,060 


In  the  following  table  the  number  of  immigrants 
arriving  in  the  United  States  is  given  for  each  decade 
from  1821  to  1890,  with  a  classification  in  which  the 
relative  importance  of  the  immigration  from  the  United 
Kingdom  in  the  earlier  decades  is  conspicuously  man- 
ifested, as  also  the  remarkable  increase  in  the  years 
1881  to  1890. 


IMMIGRATION  — NUMBER  AND  ORIGIN. 


17 


STATEMENT  OP  IMMIGRANT  ARRIVALS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR  THE 
DECADES  1821-90. 


FKOM 

1821-30. 

1831-40. 

1841-50. 

1851-60. 

1861-70. 

1871-80. 

1881-90. 

British  Islands  . 
Rest  of  Europe  . 
China    .... 
Rest  of  the  World 
Total    .... 
Yearly  Average  . 

75,803 
23,013 
2 
44,621 

283,191 
212,497 
8 
103,429 

1,047,763 
549,739 
35 
115,714 

1,338,093 
1,114,564 
41,397 
104,160 

1,106,970 
1,073,429 
68,059 
349,756 

989,163 
1,357,801 
122,436 
475,295 

1,462,839 
3,258,743 
61,711 
463,320 

143,439 

599,125 

1,713,251 

2,598,214 

2,466,752 

2,944,695 

5,246,613 

14,344 

59,912 

171,325 

259,821 

246,675 

294,469 

524,661 

Still  further  light  will  be  thrown  on  this  subject 
by  the  following  table,  in  which  the  nationality  of  the 
immigration  into  the  United  States  is  given  in  con- 
siderable detail  for  the  years  1881  to  1887,  in  per- 
centages of  the  total  amount.  From  this  table  it  will 
be  seen  that  Germany  furnished  during  those  seven 


PERCENTAGE  TABLE  SHOWING  THE  NATIONALITY  OF  IMMIGRANTS  INTO 
THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR  THE  YEARS  1881-87. 


1881. 

1882. 

1883. 

1884. 

1885. 

1886. 

1887. 

Great  Britain     .     . 

1310 

12  11 

1292 

1369 

1592 

1875 

2064 

Ireland     .    .         .... 

985 

9.99 

1467 

1270 

1421 

1347 

1406 

Austro-Hungary  .... 
Belgium    ...             . 

3.92 

27 

4.10 
15 

5.30 
29 

6.81 
37 

7.31 
39 

10.22 
42 

7.56 
58 

1.24 

1  75 

171 

1.65 

167 

169 

1  80 

.78 

.76 

70 

.80 

90 

1  04 

108 

Germany 

3466 

3180 

3233 

3372 

3072 

21  96 

21  53 

Italy     

279 

403 

518 

314 

442 

778 

899 

1.50 

1.08 

86 

.81 

.71 

68 

102 

Norway  and  Sweden      .    . 
Russia  
Spain  and  Portugal  .     .     . 
Switzerland                .         . 

11.51 
2.01 
.06 
1  62 

12.00 
3.07 
.66 
162 

9.45 
1.78 
.16 
200 

8.22 
4.32 
.11 
1  78 

9.47 
5.72 

.26 
146 

11.73 
8.45 
.13 
1  15 

13.46 
5.95 
.01 
1  26 

Other  European  countries 
China  
British  North  America  . 

.06 
2.87 
13.22 

.06 

4.87 
11.90 

.06 
.07 
11.74 

.23 

02 
1038 

.19 
.02 
522 

.64 
.00 

.25 

.00 

All  other  countries    .    .    . 

.54 

.65 

78 

1.25 

1.41 

1.89 

1.81 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

18 


IMMIGRATION  — NUMBER  AND  ORIGIN. 


years  somewhat  less  than  one  third  of  the  total  immi- 
gration; Great  Britain  and  Ireland  somewhat  more 
than  a  quarter ;  Norway  and  Sweden  about  a  tenth ; 
British  North  America  about  a  tenth ;  Austro-Hungary 
a  little  over  six  per  cent;  Russia  (including  Poland) 
from  four  to  five  per  cent ;  and  Italy  nearly  the  same. 
These  nationalities  together  furnished  during  the  six 
years  1882-87  about  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  total. 
The  immigration  from  Italy  and  Russia  shows  a  mod- 
erately rapid,  but  pretty  uniform,  increase  from  year 
to  year.  From  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal  the  im- 
migration has  been,  during  the  entire  period,  almost 
insignificant  in  amount. 

This  subject  is  still  further  illustrated  by  the  follow- 
ing table,  which  gives  the  number  of  immigrants  into 
the  United  States  for  the  years  1890,  1891,  and  1892, 
with  a  detailed  statement  of  the  various  nationalities.1 


Country. 

Year 

s. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

England  and  Wales    .... 
Scotland             

57,689 
12,041 

54,048 
12,557 

50,527 
11,520 

53,024 

55,706 

55,467 

Total  United  Kingdom  .    . 

122,754 
9,366 

122,311 
10,659 

117,514 
10,593 

6,585 

6,770 

6,521 

92,427 

113,554 

130,758 

Italy      .              .    .         .    o    . 

52003 

76055 

62,137 

Netherlands   «    . 

4,326 

5206 

7,260 

Austro-Hungary     

56,199 

71,042 

80,136 

46,671 

74923 

117,692 

Sweden  and  Norway  .... 

41,002 
6,993 

49,448 
6811 

57,709 
7,408 

All  other  countries      .... 

16,976 

23,340 

25,356 

Total    

455  302 

560  319 

623  084 

For  later  statistics  of  immigration  see  Appendix  A. 


IMMIGRATION  — NUMBER  AND  ORIGIN.  19 

The  total  immigration  into  the  United  States  for  the 
twelve  years  1881-92  has  been  as  follows :  — 

1881  669,431  1887  490,109 

1882  788,992  1888  546,889 

1883  603,322  1889  444,427 

1884  518,592  1890  455,302 

1885  395,346  1891  560,319 

1886  334,203  1892  623,084 

The  above  figures  indicate  a  considerable  fluctuation 
in  the  total  immigration  into  this  country,  the  reasons 
for  which  cannot  easily  be  given.  The  maximum  of 
the  last  twelve  years  was  in  the  year  1882,  788,992 
persons,  and  the  minimum  in  1886,  with  334,203  per- 
sons; since  the  latter  date  there  has  been  a  pretty 
steady  rise  in  the  number,  those  for  1892  being  nearly 
the  double  of  those  for  1886.  The  yearly  average  for 
the  decade  1881-90  was  524,661,  which  is  nearly  the 
double  of  the  average  of  the  preceding  decade. 

The  table  on  the  preceding  page,  showing  the  number 
and  the  nationalities  of  the  immigration  for  the  three 
years  1890-92,  exhibits,  in  the  main,  facts  similar  to 
those  indicated  in  the  percentage  table  of  the  nationality 
of  immigrants  for  the  years  1881-87,  given  on  page  17. 
A  slight  decrease  in  the  immigration  from  the  United 
Kingdom  from  year  to  year  is  evident,  the  average  of 
the  three  years  being  only  a  little  more  than  a  fifth  of 
the  total.  The  immigration  from  France  and  Denmark 
remained  nearly  stationary ;  that  from  Sweden  and 
Norway  and  Germany  increased  rapidly  and  quite  reg- 
ularly; that  from  Russia  very  rapidly  and  regularly; 
that  from  Italy  rapidly  and  irregularly.  Russia  fur- 
nished in  1892  as  large  a  number  of  immigrants  to 


20  IMMIGRATION  —  DISTRIBUTION. 

the  United  States  as  the  United  Kingdom,  and  nine 
tenths  as  many  as  Germany. 

The  immigration  into  the  United  States  is  very 
unequally  distributed  over  the  surface  of  the  country. 
An  inspection  of  the  census  tables  and  the  accom- 
panying maps  shows  that  immigrants  in  very  large 
proportion  seek  Northern  regions.  In  the  Southern 
States,  with  the  exception  of  Florida,  Louisiana,  and 
Texas,  the  foreign  element  is  practically  null.  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Mis- 
sissippi have  less  than  one  per  cent  of  foreign-born 
population ;  Virginia,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas  less 
than  two  per  cent.  No  State  south  of  Maryland  and 
the  Ohio  River  east  of  the  Mississippi  has  as  much  as 
five  per  cent,  with  the  exception  of  Florida.  In  the 
North  Atlantic,  Northwestern  Central,  and  Cordilleran 
States  and  Territories,  on  the  other  hand,  the  foreign 
element  is  most  strongly  represented.  Thus,  in  Rhode 
Island,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  North  Dakota,  Montana, 
and  Nevada  the  foreign-born  population  is  over  thirty 
per  cent  of  the  native ;  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  Illinois,  Michigan,  South  Dakota,  Idaho, 
Wyoming,  Colorado,  Utah,  Washington,  Oregon,  and 
California,  over  twenty  but  less  than  thirty  per  cent. 
Texas  forms  an  exception  to  the  other  Southern  States, 
the  foreign  element  being  of  some  importance — 6.84 
per  cent  —  especially  in  the  southwestern  portion  of 
the  State. 

The  following  table  shows  by  geographical  divisions 
the  percentage  of  the  native  arid  foreign-born  of  the 
total  population  in  1890,  as  well  as  the  percentage  of 
native  white  persons  born  of  foreign  parents. 


NATIVE  AND  FOREIGN-BORN  POPULATION. 


21 


Division. 

Native. 

Foreign. 

Native  white 
of  foreign 
parents. 

North  Atlantic     ....         .    . 

77.66 

2234 

2503 

South  Atlantic 

9765 

235 

3  64 

North  CGntral      .         

81  84 

1816 

2508 

South  Central      

97.07 

293 

462 

74.54 

25.46 

2345 

The  distribution  of  native  white  persons  of  foreign 
parentage  follows  very  closely  that  of  the  foreign-born 
element,  showing  that  those  States  and  Territories 
which  a  generation  ago  attracted  European  immigrants 
still  continue  to  attract  them  in  practically  the  same 
degree. 

The  following  table  shows  the  percentage  increase  of 
native  and  foreign-born  by  geographical  divisions,  and 
for  the  whole  country,  for  each  census  since  1850. 


Division. 

Percentage  Increase  of  Native. 

Percentage  Increase  of  Foreign. 

1850-60. 

1860-70. 

1870-80. 

1880-90.    1850-60. 

1860-70. 

1870-80. 

1880-90. 

North  Atlantic  . 

17.38 

14.09 

19.58 

19.57 

17.68 

30.51 

20.46 

34.10 

South  Atlantic  . 

13.73 

9.31 

20.53 

16.52 

51.89 

2.67 

4.44 

19.66 

North  Central   . 

58.91 

40.97 

35.68 

26.68 

137.30 

51.18 

25.01 

39.20 

South  Central  . 

32.93 

11.96 

39.41 

23.20 

68.13 

1.39 

17.65 

17.34 

Cord  ill  eran  .  .  . 

189.84 

53.91 

87.20 

78.02 

562.50 

75.06 

59.58 

54.16 

United  States    . 

30.35 

20.83 

31.78 

22.76 

84.38 

34.52 

19.99 

38.47 

There  were  in  the  United  States  as  a  whole  in  1890 
17,330  foreign-born  persons  to  each  100,000  native- 
born,  as  against  15,365  in  1880,  and  16,875  in  1870. 
There  has  been  an  increase  in  the  number  of  foreign- 
born  to  each  100,000  native-born  for  the  North  Atlan- 
tic division  from  24,070  in  1880  to  28,773  in  1890, 
and  in  the  North  Central  division  from  20,189  to 


22  EXCLUSION  OF   THE  CHINESE. 

22,184.  In  the  Cordilleran  division  there  has  been  a 
decrease  in  the  number  of  foreign-born  to  each  100,000 
native-born  from  39,448  in  1880  to  34,161  in  1890. 
In  the  South  Atlantic  and  South  Central  divisions  the 
foreign-born  element  is  not  numerically  of  importance, 
there  being  only  3,021  foreign-born  to  each  100,000 
native-born  in  1890  in  the  South  Central  division, 
and  but  2,411  in  the  South  Atlantic  division. 

Early  in  1882  an  Act  was  passed  by  Congress  sus- 
pending Chinese  immigration  into  the  United  States 
for  the  term  of  twenty  years.  This  was  vetoed  by  the 
President,  and  another  one  was  passed  having  nearly 
the  same  provisions  as  the  first,  but  limiting  the  time 
of  its  operation  to  ten  years.  This  Act  was  not  vetoed  : 
but  became  a  law  May  6,  1882.  This  second  Act  is 
entitled  "  An  Act  to  execute  certain  treaty  stipulations 
relating  to  Chinese."  From  and  after  ninety  days 
after  the  passage  of  this  Act  the  entrance  of  Chinese 
"laborers"  into  the  United  States  was  forbidden,  and 
any  master  of  a  vessel  bringing  them  here  was  punish- 
able by  a  fine  of  $500  for  each  laborer  so  brought,  and 
also  by  imprisonment  for  a  term  not  exceeding  one 
year.  The  pretext  for  this  unprecedented  act  was 
"that  the  coming  of  Chinese  laborers  to  this  country 
endangers  the  good  order  of  certain  localities  "  within 
the  territory  of  the  United  States.  The  term  "labor- 
ers" was  held  to  mean  "both  skilled  and  unskilled 
laborers,  and  Chinese  employed  in  mining." 

Further  legislation  relating  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
Chinese  from  the  United  States  was  had  by  Congress 
in  1888.  Two  Acts  were  passed,  the  first  having  been 
approved  Sept.  13,  1888,  and  a  second,  supplementary 


EXCLUSION   OF  THE  CHINESE.  23 

to  this,  October  1  of  the  same  year.  The  object  of 
these  two  Acts  was  to  prevent  the  Chinese  who  were 
then  in  the  United  States  from  returning  after  having 
left  this  country.  The  first  Act  (approved  September 
13)  allowed  a  native  of  China  to  leave  the  country 
and  return,  provided  he  had  "  a  lawful  wife,  child,  or 
parent  within  the  United  States,  or  property  therein 
of  the  value  of  one  thousand  dollars,  or  debts  of  like 
amount  due  him  and  pending  settlement."  This  privi- 
lege was  entirely  cancelled  by  the  supplementary  Act, 
approved  October  1 ;  and  as  the  matter  now  stands,  only 
"  Chinese  officials,  teachers,  students,  merchants,  or  trav- 
ellers for  pleasure  or  curiosity  are  permitted  to  enter 
the  United  States."  Futherrnore,  it  is  provided  that 
in  order  to  become  entitled  to  such  entrance  they  must 
"  obtain  the  permission  of  the  Chinese  Government  or 
other  Government  of  which  they  may  at  the  time  be 
citizens  or  subjects."  This  permission,  and  the  personal 
identity  of  the  party  having  obtained  it,  must  be  au- 
thenticated by  the  diplomatic  or  consular  representative 
of  the  United  States  at  the  port  or  place  from  which  the 
party  comes.  It  is  farther  provided  that  any  master  of 
a  vessel  landing,  or  attempting  to  land,  any  Chinese 
laborer,  "  in  contravention  to  the  provisions  of  this  Act, 
shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and,  on  con- 
viction thereof,  shall  be  punished  with  a  fine  of  not  less 
than  five  hundred  nor  more  than  one  thousand  dollars, 
in  the  discretion  of  the  Court,  for  every  Chinese  laborer 
or  other  Chinese  person  so  brought,  and  may  also  be 
imprisoned  for  a  term  of  not  less  than  one  year,  nor 
more  than  five  years,  in  the  discretion  of  the  Court." 
Provisions  have  also  been  made  by  Act  of  Con- 


24  RESTRAINTS  ON  IMMIGRATION. 

gress  for  the  regulation  of  the  immigrant  carrying 
business,  and  rules  have  been  prescribed  as  to  food, 
water,  light,  space  occupied,  etc.  A  tax  of  fifty  cents 
is  also  imposed  on  all  immigrants  landing  in  this 
country  to  be  used  "  in  defraying  the  expense  of  regu- 
lating immigration  under  this  Act,  and  for  the  care  of 
immigrants  arriving  in  the  United  States,  for  the 
relief  of  such  as  are  in  distress,  etc."1 

By  an  Act  of  Congress  approved  August  3,  1882,  it 
is  provided  that  no  convict,  lunatic,  idiot,  or  person 
"  unable  to  take  care  of  himself  or  herself  without  be- 
coming a  public  charge,"  shall  be  permitted  to  land. 
Under  the  provisions  of  this  Act  it  appears  that  from 
1883  to  Jan.  30,  1893,  11,421  immigrants  had  been 
returned  from  the  United  States  to  their  own  coun- 
tries,—  or  an  average  of  about  1,000  persons  a  year. 
Of  those  thus  returned  from  1883  to  June  30,  1893, 
inclusive,  there  were  120  convicts,  486  lunatics,  and 
151  idiots.  The  remainder  (10,664  persons)  were 
returned  as  "liable  to  become  a  public  charge." 

A  very  stringent  Act  was  passed  by  Congress  in 
1885,  prohibiting  the  importation  and  immigration  of 
foreigners  and  aliens  "  under  contract  or  agreement  to 
perform  labor  in  the  United  States,  its  Territories,  and 
the  District  of  Columbia."  Under  the  provisions  of 
this  Act  there  had  been  returned  to  their  own  countries, 
up  to  1888,  7,764  persons.  During  the  fiscal  year2 
ending  June  30,  1893,  464  persons  were  thus  returned. 

1  Not  collected  from  immigrants  coming  from  Canada  or  Mexico. 

2  For  further  remarks  in  regard  to  the  general  subject  of  immigration 
into  the  United  States,  its  distribution  etc.,  as  also  in  reference  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  Chinese  and  other  unwelcome  persons,  see  Appendix  A. 


POPULATION  AND  RAINFALL. 


25 


III.    IRRIGATION. 

The  following  table  is  given  by  the  census  of  1890, 
as  illustrating  the  distribution  of  the  population  in 
accordance  with  the  mean  annual  rainfall. 


Inches  of 
Rainfall. 

Population  per  square  mile. 

Increase  in  Population 
per  square  mile. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

1870-1880. 

1880-1890. 

Below  10 

0.3 

0.6 

0.8 

0.3 

0.2 

10  to  20 

0.4 

0.8 

1.8 

0.4 

1.0 

20  "  30 

1.6 

4.7 

8.1 

3.1 

3.4 

30  "  40 

28.6 

35.5 

43.1 

6.9 

7.6 

40  "  50 

39.4 

49.2 

59.0 

9.8 

0.8 

50  "  60 

15.5 

20.9 

25.1 

5.4 

4.2 

60  "  70 

11.9 

14.5 

18.1 

2.6 

3.6 

Above  70 

0.8 

2.1 

4.1 

1.3 

2.0 

It  must  be  remembered,  in  consulting  the  above 
table,  that  the  statistics  of  rainfall  where  this  is  very 
scanty  are  never  satisfactory,  and  this  is  emphatically 
the  case  in  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States,  where 
the  stations  at  which  meteorological  observations  are 
taken  are  few  in  number,  and  the  topographical  con- 
ditions such  that  the  rainfall  is  very  irregularly  dis- 
tributed, and  extremely  variable  in  amount  from  year 
to  year.  Only  by  means  of  a  very  long  series  of 
observations  at  many  stations,  plotted  on  accurate 
topographical  maps  made  on  a  large  scale,  could  even 
approximately  accurate  hyetographic  curves  be  drawn. 

Nearly  three  fourths  of  the  population  of  the  United 
States  inhabit  a  region  over  which  the  rainfall  is  be- 
tween thirty  and  fifty  inches  in  amount,  and  on  either 


26          POPULATION  AND  RAINFALL. 

side  of  the  area  thus  favored  the  number  of  persons 
to  the  square  mile  diminishes  very  rapidly,  as  shown 
by  the  figures  given  in  the  above  table.  But  the  extent 
of  country  where  these  conditions  are  more  or  less 
influential  is  very  unequally  divided  between  areas  of 
abundant  precipitation  and  of  excessive  dryness.  Only 
over  a  very  small  part  of  the  country  does  the  rainfall 
exceed  fifty  inches,  while  considerably  more  than  two 
fifths  receives  less  than  twenty  inches.  But  it  is  by 
no  means  true  that  the  scantiness  of  population  over 
the  region  having  more  than  fifty  inches  of  rainfall  is 
due  to  that  excess  of  precipitation.  There  is  no  part 
of  the  United  States  where  the  rainfall  is  so  large  as 
to  be  the  essential  cause  of  a  thinly  distributed  popula- 
tion. Many  large  areas  of  the  earth's  surface  are 
densely  inhabited  even  where  the  precipitation  is  much 
larger  than  it  is  in  any  part  of  the  United  States.  The 
regions  of  very  large  rainfall  in  this  country  are  parts 
of  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  adjacent  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  the  southern  portion  of  Florida.  There  is 
also  a  narrow  belt  similarly  conditioned  along  the  Pa- 
cific coast  in  Oregon  and  Washington.  Here  it  is  clearly 
the  case  that  other  causes  than  excessive  precipitation 
connect  themselves  with  and  are  responsible  for  the 
scantiness  of  the  population.  The  coast  of  Oregon  and 
Washington  is  bordered  by  high  mountains,  not  easily 
cleared  and  cultivated,  and  coming  close  down  to  the 
sea.  Most  of  the  peninsula  of  Florida  lies  too  low  for 
easy  drainage :  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi  and  the 
adjoining  regions  have  similar  disadvantages.  The 
Southwestern  Central  division  of  the  United  States 
(including  Arkansas,  Oklahoma,  Louisiana,  and  Texas), 


THE   ARID  REGION.  27 

much  the  larger  portion  of  which  receives  over  twenty 
but  less  than  fifty  inches  of  rainfall,  has,  according 
to  the  census  of  1890,  only  10.3  persons  to  the  square 
mile,  while  the  table  given  above  shows  that  in  the  belt 
in  which  the  precipitation  ranges  from  fifty  to  sixty 
there  were  25.1  to  the  square  mile  in  1890,  and  in  the 
belt  ranging  between  sixty  and  seventy  18.1  to  the 
square  mile. 

Far  otherwise  is  it  in  regard  to  the  scantiness  of  the 
population  over  a  very  considerable  fraction  of  the 
United  States  as  conditioned  at  the  present  time  in 
large  part,  and  likely  to  be  so  in  the  future,  by  the  in- 
sufficient supply  of  rain.  This  so  called  "Arid  Kegion" 
comprises  two  fifths  of  the  whole  area  of  the  country, 
but  contains  only  three  per  cent  of  its  population. 
Moreover,  there  was  during  the  interval  between  the 
census  of  1880  and  that  of  1890  but  very  little  change 
in  the  density  of  the  population  of  this  region.  Of  the 
three  subdivisions  of  the  Cordilleran  division  of  the 
country,  the  Plateau  is  most  scantily  supplied  with 
water,  and  in  that  region  (comprising  the  State  of 
Nevada  and  the  Territories  of  Arizona  and  Utah)  the 
density  of  the  population  increased  between  1880  and 
1890  only  0.3  (or  from  0.7  to  1.0)  per  square  mile. 
In  the  whole  Cordilleran  division,  comprising  39.3  per 
cent  of  the  total  area  of  the  United  States  (exclusive 
of  Alaska),  the  density  of  the  population  was  raised 
between  1880  and  1890  from  1.5  to  2.5  per  square 
mile.  In  the  State  of  Nevada  during  that  interval 
there  was  a  considerable  decrease  of  the  population. 
The  following  table  gives  the  essential  facts  regarding 
the  area,  distribution,  and  number  of  the  population  of 


28 


IRRIGATION  — WHERE   ORIGINATED. 


the  Cordilleran  region,  as  reported  by  the  census  of 
1880  and  that  of  1890. 

AREA  AND  POPULATION  OF  THE  CORDILLERAN  DIVISION  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES  IN  1880  AND  1890. 


Subdivision. 

Area. 

Population. 

Square  miles. 

Per  cent 
of  total. 

Per  cent  of  total. 

Per  sq.  mile. 

1880. 

1890. 

1880. 

1890. 

Rocky  Mountain.     . 
Plateau  

655,275 

308,690 
323,570 

18.4 
10.2 
10.7 

0.8 

0.5 
2.2 

1.3 
0.5 
2.9 

0.7 
0.7 
3.4 

1.8 
1.0 
5.7 

Pacific  Coast  .     .     . 

Total                 .     . 

1,187,535 

39.3 

3.5 

4.7 

15 

2.5 

Irrigation  has  done  something  to  mitigate  the  un- 
favorable condition  of  the  arid  belt,  but  no  artificial 
assistance  can  do  more  than  palliate  to  a  limited  degree, 
and  that  only  within  certain  favorably  situated  areas 
of  small  extent,  the  discomforts  and  disadvantages  of 
those  who  live  in  and  attempt  to  cultivate  a  region 
where  the  rainfall  is  insufficient. 

Irrigation  was  employed  in  California  almost  from 
the  beginning  of  the  placer-mining  excitement ;  but  at 
first,  of  course,  only  on  a  very  small  scale.  The  canals 
(usually  called  "  ditches  ")  which  were  originally  built 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  water  for  use  in  gold 
washing,  soon  began  to  be  used  in  part  for  irrigation, 
and  chiefly  for  raising  fruit  and  vegetables.  As  the 
mines  became  exhausted  the  water  was  more  and  more 
used  for  agricultural  purposes.  Later  on,  the  construc- 
tion of  canals  or  ditches  for  irrigation  solely,  and  on  a 
more  extensive  scale,  was  successfully  attempted,  es- 
pecially along  the  base  of  the  foot-hills  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  Sierra.  The  same  thing  was  done  in  the 


IRRIGATION  —  PLANS  FOR.  29 

more  southern  part  of  the  State,  in  the  western  and 
southwestern  border  region  or  foot-hills  of  the  Coast 
Ranges.  As  the  towns  grew  larger,  dams  began  to  be 
built  to  hold  back  water  for  their  supply.  At  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  Colorado,  the 
natural  advantages  for  irrigation  are  great,  and  this 
business  has  there  become  of  considerable  importance. 
This  had  all  been  done  under  authority  of  the  various 
States,  but  after  a  time  the  general  government  took 
the  matter  into  consideration,  and  Congress  decided  to 
do  at  least  a  certain  amount  of  preliminary  work, 
with  the  idea  of  laying  the  foundation  of  a  more  com- 
prehensive and  scientifically  planned  system  of  irriga- 
tion for  the  whole  arid  region  of  the  country. 

With  this  end  in  view,  an  appropriation  was  made 
in  1888  of  $100,000,  and  one  of  $250,000  in  the  next 
year,  and  others  in  succeeding  years,1  the  expenditure 
of  which  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Director  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  The  objects  to 
be  attained  by  the  work  thus  authorized,  as  stated  in 
the  Joint  Resolution  of  Congress  approved  March  20, 
1888,  and  in  various  Acts  of  that  body,  are:  "to  inves- 
tigate the  practicability  of  constructing  reservoirs  for 
the  storage  of  water  in  the  arid  regions  of  the  United 
States;  also  to  classify  the  public  lands,  and  furnish  a 
map  or.  maps  showing  the  various  divisions  of  the 
public  domain  suitable  for  agricultural,  mineral,  and 
other  purposes ;  and  particularly  to  segregate  the  lands 
susceptible  of  irrigation,  where  irrigation  is  required, 
from  other  lands,  and  designating  places  for  reservoirs, 
canals,  and  other  hydraulic  works." 

1  For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1891,  $41,509.89. 


30  IRRIGATION  — PROJECTS   FOR. 

Up  to  the  present  time  (September,  1893)  three 
reports  of  the  irrigation  survey  work  thus  authorized 
and  set  in  operation  have  been  published  or  are  avail- 
able for  reference.1  From  these  the  following  data 
have  been  compiled. 

During  the  first  season  of  this  survey  the  necessary 
preliminary  topographic  and  hydrographic  work  was 
begun  :  in  Montana,  at  the  head -waters  of  the  Columbia 
and  Missouri  Rivers ;  in  Nevada,  near  the  head- waters 
of  the  Truckee,  Carson,  and  Walker;  in  Colorado,  on 
the  South  Platte  and  the  Upper  Arkansas  ;  in  New  Mex- 
ico, in  the  drainage  basin  of  the  Rio  Grande. 

In  the  second  year  of  this  work,  engineering  surveys 
were  carried  on  in  Montana,  principally  along  the  Sun 
River ;  in  Colorado,  on  the  head-waters  of  the  Arkan- 
sas, and  in  Kansas  farther  down  that  river ;  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  principally  in  the  vicinity  of  El  Paso ;  in  Cal- 
ifornia, around  Clear  Lake  and  in  the  Sierra  Nevada ; 
in  Nevada,  on  the  Truckee  and  Carson  Rivers ;  in  Utah, 
around  Utah  Lake ;  and  in  Idaho,  on  the  lava  plains 
adjoining  Snake  River.  In  Montana,  ten  reservoir 
sites  were  surveyed,  and  on  the  head-waters  of  the 
Arkansas,  eight.  Work  of  a  similar  kind  was  done  in 
the  other  localities  mentioned  above,  especially  near 
El  Paso,  where  the  position  of  a  proposed  large  dam 
was  fixed,  at  the  outlet  of  Donner  Lake  in  California 

1  Report  I.,  in  the  Tenth  Annual  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey. 
Part  II.  Irrigation.  1890. 

Report  II.,  in  the  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  same.  Part  II.  Irri- 
gation. 1891. 

Report  III.,  in  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  (52  Cong.  1st 
Sess.,  Ex.  Doc.  1,  Part  5),  containing  Twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  U.  S. 
Geol.  Survey.  Part  II.  Irrigation.  1892. 


IRRIGATION —  SURVEYS  FOR.  31 

and  of  other  lakes  in  the  same  vicinity.  Furthermore, 
in  the  Snake  River  division  surveys  were  made  "  de- 
monstrating the  practicability  of  diverting  the  waters 
of  that  river  upon  the  lava  plains  upon  both  sides  of 
the  stream,"  etc.,  etc. 

In  the  Third  Report  of  the  Irrigation  Survey,  the 
results  of  the  previous  years'  work  are  summed  up  in 
the  statement  that  147  reservoir  sites  were  surveyed 
and  reported  for  segregation,  of  which  33  are  in  Cali- 
fornia, 46  in  Colorado,  27  in  Montana,  39  in  New 
Mexico,  and  2  in  Nevada.  The  total  area  segregated 
for  these  reservoirs  was  165,932  acres.  The  aggregate 
contents  of  all  these  reservoirs  are  given  as  being 
2,847,815  acre-feet,  supposed  or  assumed  to  be  suffi- 
cient to  irrigate  1,898,544  acres.  Of  these  reservoir 
sites,  diagrams  are  given  in  the  report,  which  was  pre- 
pared by  A.  H.  Thompson,  who  was  in  charge  of  this 
department  of  the  work.  In  addition  there  is  a  special 
report  "  On  the  Hydrography  of  the  Arid  Region"  by 
F.  H.  Newell,  and  one  by  H.  M.  Wilson  on  "  Irrigation 
in  India,"  occupying  nearly  200  royal  octavo  pages. 

Nothing  has  yet  been  done  toward  the  accomplish- 
ment of  any  of  these  gigantic  schemes,  involving  an 
immense  expenditure,  if  they  were  actually  to  be  car- 
ried out.  With  any  such  attempted  carrying  out,  the 
practical  difficulties  which  would  arise,  aside  from  the 
question  of  cost,  would  be  great  and  manifold.  The 
engineering  difficulties  of  large  dams,  not  only  those  of 
construction,  but  those  of  preservation  after  building, 
have  been  sufficiently  shown  in  the  numerous  catastro- 
phes which  have  occurred  in  this  country  during  the 
past  few  years,  resulting  from  the  giving  way  of  these 


32  DAMS  AND  RESERVOIRS. 

structures,  and  by  which  thousands  of  lives  have  been 
lost.  The  legal  difficulties  involved  in  the  distribution 
of  the  water  and  the  right  to  purchase  the  land  about 
to  be  benefited  by  the  irrigation  works  of  any  partic- 
ular district,  as  well  as  the  question  of  conflict  between 
United  States  and  State  or  Territorial  authorities, 
would  not  be  the  least  of  the  obstacles  which  would 
have  to  be  met  and  overcome,  if  the  United  States 
should  really  embark  in  any  such  irrigation  enterprise 
as  seems  to  have  been  contemplated  by  Congress  at  the 
time  of  the  inception  of  this  irrigation  scheme. 

The  question  of  the  probable  cost  of  dams  and 
storage  basins  in  the  arid  region  receives  some  light 
from  the  examination  of  what  has  been  expended  by  the 
United  States  government  in  building  reservoirs  at  the 
head-waters  of  the  Mississippi  River.  The  object  of 
these  reservoirs  is  defined  by  the  Chief  of  Engineers 
to  be  "  to  collect  surplus  water,  principally  from  the 
precipitation  of  winter,  spring,  and  early  summer,  to 
be  systematically  released  so  as  to  benefit  navigation 
upon  the  Mississippi  River  below  the  dams."  1 

This  reservoir  project  was  the  outcome  of  surveys 
and  examinations  made  in  1869,  1874,  1878,  and  1879. 
Up  to  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1891, 
the  sum  of  $619,850.20  had  been  expended  on  this 
work,  and  a  further  sum  of  $1,034,683.50  was  esti- 
mated as  required  for  the  completion  of  the  project. 
Up  to  the  year  1886  four  of  the  proposed  reservoirs 
had  been  completed,  and  during  the  months  of  May  and 
June,  1891,  men  and  materials  had  been  assembled  for 

1  Annual  Report  of  the  Chief  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  Army,  1892,  Part  I. 
p.  257. 


RESERVOIRS  AT  HEAD  OF  MISSISSIPPI.  33 

the  erection  of  a  fifth  at  Sandy  Lake.  The  completed 
reservoirs  are  said  to  have  been  operated  from  1885  to 
1891,  during  seasons  of  low  water,  "  to  the  benefit  of 
navigation  on  more  than  165  miles  of  the  Mississippi 
River."  The  "  true  effectiveness  "  of  the  system  does 
not  seem  yet  to  have  been  ascertained,  since  the  officer 
in  charge  of  the  work  recommends  that  appropriations 
be  continued  "  for  the  operation  and  maintenance  of 
the  five  reservoirs,  and  for  hydrological  and  meteoro- 
logical observations,  to  determine  the  effect  of  the 
reservoir  water."  The  latter  purpose  is  said  to  be 
"  specially  worthy  of  consideration,  for  the  result  of  the 
observations  extending  over  a  period  of  several  years 
would  determine  the  true  effectiveness  of  the  reser- 
voirs." 1 

1  There  is  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  question  of  the  utility  of  the 
reservoirs  at  the  head-waters  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  Report  of  the  Chief 
of  Engineers  cited  above.  It  contains  a  condensed  history  of  the  reser- 
voirs, proposed  and  built,  at  the  head-waters  of  the  Mississippi  River  and 
its  tributaries,  with  a  brief  resume  of  the  results  up  to  the  close  of  the  sea- 
son in  1887,  with  additional  matter  by  the  engineer  in  charge  of  the  work, 
bringing  the  whole  subject  down  to  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1892.  The  question  whether  the  benefits  realized  are  sufficient 
to  justify  the  enormous  expenditures  incurred  in  this  work  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  satisfactorily  answered.  It  is  claimed  that  by  the 
release  of  the  stored-up  water  of  the  four  completed  reservoirs  (at  Lake 
Winibigoshish,  Leech  Lake,  Pokegama  Falls,  and  Pine  River,  this  last 
completed  in  1886)  there  was  an  increase  in  the  channel  depth  at  St. 
Paul  of  one  foot  during  the  low  water  season  of  1888 ;  but  "  the  effect  of 
the  reservoirs  on  the  navigable  depths  of  the  water  in  the  channel  of  the 
Mississippi  River  above  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  is  not  as  clearly  shown 
as  it  could  be."  Practically  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  ends  at 
St.  Paul,  above  which  point  there  are  numerous  falls  and  rapids.  The 
upper  part  of  the  river  appears  to  be  chiefly  used  for  rafting  logs  during 
the  season  of  high  water,  and  it  seems  that  the  system  of  dam  construction 
for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  depth  in  the  channel  during  low  water 
season  is  opposed  by  the  lumbermen  as  being  decidedly  in  conflict  with 
their  interests.  Should  this  prove  to  be  the  case,  it  is  to  be  feared  that 

3 


34  IRRIGATION  IN  INDIA. 

Frequent  reference  is  made  in  the  various  United 
States  and  State  reports  on  irrigation  to  the  condition 
of  things  in  India,  and  to  the  vast  irrigational  engi- 
neering operations  which  have  been  carried  on  there  by 
the  government;  which,  however,  are  to  a  considera- 
ble extent  merely  a  continuation,  systematization,  and 
amplification  of  what  the  natives  had  been  doing  for 
centuries. 

There  are  very  great  and  essential  differences  between 
the  condition  of  things  in  India  and  the  United  States, 
with  reference  to  the  governmental  control  of  irrigation. 
The  Indian  government  has  the  means  of  repaying 
itself,  in  large  part  at  least,  for  its  expenditures  in  this 
department  of  the  public  works.  It  is  the  land  which 
furnishes  the  chief  source  of  Indian  revenue,  and  the 
collection  of  the  land  tax  forms  the  main  work  of  In- 
dian administration.1  The  rate  of  assessment,  how- 
ever, varies  with  the  quality  of  the  land,  and  with  the 
advantages,  natural  or  artificial,  which  it  possesses. 
The  average  rate  is  9s.  Qd.  per  acre  on  irrigated  land, 
as  compared  with  only  2s.  3d.  per  acre  on  unirrigated 
land.2  Any  similar  method  of  repayment  to  the  United 
States  government  for  the  expenditures  incurred  in 
engineering  irrigational  works  would  be  impossible. 

the  dams,  unless  carefully  defended  from  attack  by  the  United  States 
authorities,  will  be  more  or  less  completely  destroyed  by  those  who 
consider  that  their  natural  rights  to  use  the  river  for  rafting  purposes 
have  been  interfered  with  by  the  general  government. 

1  "  That  the  state  should  appropriate  to  itself  a  share  of  the  produce  of 
the  soil,  is  a  maxim  of  finance  which  has  been  recognized  throughout 
the  East  from  time  immemorial.  ...  No  other  system  of  taxation  could 
be  theoretically  more  just,  or  in  practice  less  obnoxious,  to  the  people." 
W.  W.  Hunter,  in  «  Our  Indian  Empire,"  London,  1882,  page  334. 

2  W.  W.  Hunter,  loc.  cit.,  page  424. 


IRRIGATION  IN  INDIA.  35 

But,  furthermore,  the  conditions  of  the  two  countries, 
British  India  and  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States, 
both  as  to  climate  and  population,  are,  if  not  entirely 
different,  at  least  so  essentially  unlike,  that  no  safe 
conclusion  can  be  drawn  from  a  comparison  of  their 
irrigational  possibilities. 

And,  first,  as  to  population :  India  is  a  densely 
populated  country,  as  compared  with  the  United  States 
as  a  whole,  and  much  more  so  as  contrasted  with  the 
arid  region  of  the  last  named  country.  The  census  of 
1891  showed  a  population  of  287,234,849  on  1,557,484 
square  miles  of  British  territory  —  that  is,  including 
the  feudatory  states.  Here,  as  will  be  seen  from  these 
figures,  we  have  almost  five  times  the  population  of 
the  United  States  on  about  half  its  area.  But  the 
portion  of  the  latter  country  which  it  is  proposed  to 
irrigate  has,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  table  on  page  28, 
only  from  one  to  two  persons  to  the  square  mile,  while 
British  India  as  a  whole  (excluding  the  native  states) 
has  a  little  over  233  to  the  square  mile. 

Again,  India,  on  the  whole,  is  a  region  of  large  pre- 
cipitation, only  small  portions  of  that  country  having 
a  scanty  supply  of  rain.  It  is  irregularity  of  precipita- 
tion, or  exceptional  seasons  of  drought,  rather  than  a 
small  average  amount,  for  which  provision  has  chiefly 
to  be  made.  Sind,  which  derives  its  supply  mainly 
from  canals  filled  by  the  floods  of  the  Indus,  and  where 
the  percentage  of  irrigated  as  compared  with  non- 
irrigated  land  is  largest  (80  per  cent),  has  only  a  little 
more  than  2,000,000  acres  under  cultivation,  the  total 
of  British  India  being  nearly  one  hundred  times  greater. 
Sind,  however,  has  been  exceptionlly  free  from  famine 


36 


IRRIGATION  AND  RAINFALL  IN  INDIA. 


uuder  British  rule.  Orissa,  on  the  other  hand,  where 
the  average  rainfall  exceeds  sixty  inches,  was,  a  few 
years  ago,  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most  severe  famines 
of  recent  times. 

The  annexed  table  gives  a  pretty  good  idea  of  the 
comparative  density  of  the  population,  as  well  as  of 
the  relative  amount  of  irrigation  and  the  amount  and 
variability  of  the  rainfall  in  the  most  important  prov- 
inces of  British  India.1 


Province. 

Popu- 
lation 
to 
square 
mile. 

Acres  of  area 
ordinarily 
cultivated. 

Acres  of  area 
ordinarily 
irrigated. 

Per  cent 
of  cul- 
tivated 
land  irri- 
gated. 

Rainfall  in  inches. 

Average 
Annual. 

Local 
Vari- 
ation. 

Punjab            .     . 

187.4 
442.2 

473.5 

127.4 
163.5 

150.4 

248.3 
196.6 

21,000,000 
36,000,000 

54,500,000 

15,500,000 
6,500,000 
(  24,500,000 
I    2,250,000 
32,000,000 
5,000,000 

5,500,000 

11,500,000 

1,000,000 

770,000 
100,000 
450,000 
1,800,000 
7,300,000 
800,000 

26.2 

32.0 

H 

5.0 
1.5 
1.8 
80.0 
23.0 
16.0 

22 

36 

West.  49 
Lower  66 
51 
35 

29 

6-36 
25-50 

43-61 
54-112 
43-79 
21-69 

18-36 

N.  W.  Provinces  and  ) 
Oudh  ....       J 

Bengal 

Central  Provinces   . 
Berar 

Bombay      .     «     .     .  ) 
Sind  ......) 

Madras 

JMvsore       . 

The  following  table  shows  the  annual  average  pre- 
cipitation at  certain  stations  in  the  arid  region,  those 
being  selected  at  which  the  observations  have  been 
continued  during  the  greatest  number  of  years.2  Ari- 
zona, New  Mexico,  Colorado,  and  Utah  are  represented, 

1  This  table  is  compiled  chiefly  from  data  furnished  by  H.  F.  Blanford, 
in  "  Climates  and  Weather  of  India,  Ceylon,  and  Burmah,"  London,  1889, 
and  W.  W.  Hunter's  « Indian  Empire,"  London,  1882. 

2  The  information  presented  in  this  table  has  been  compiled  from  the 
Report  of  the  Chief  Signal  Officer  on  Irrigation  and  Water  Storage  in 
the  Arid  Region  (1891),  51st  Cong.  2d  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  287. 


RAINFALL  OF  ARID  REGIOX. 


37 


no  very  recent  available  data  for  other  Cordilleran 
States  and  Territories  having  been  obtained.  The 
scantiness  and  irregular  yearly  distribution  of  the  pre- 
cipitation in  the  region  which  the  table  covers  are 

ANNUAL  PRECIPITATION  AND  LOCAL  VARIATION  AT  CERTAIN  STATIONS 
IN  THE  ARID  REGION. 


Station. 

Average 
Annual 
Precipitation. 

No.  of 
Years 
observed. 

Precipitation. 

Local 
Range. 

Greatest. 

Least. 

Casa   Grande,  Arizona 

4.28 

10 

10.70 

1.73 

8.97 

Muricopa, 

6.17 

15 

11.96 

0.38 

11.58 

Fort  McDowell,       " 

10.38 

24 

20.95 

4.94 

16.01 

Fort  Mohave,          " 

5.99 

17 

6.99 

21.38 

2.16 

Phrenix,                    " 

7.88 

16 

12.83 

6.17 

7.66 

Tucson,                    " 

12.11 

15 

18.37 

5.26 

13.11 

Fort  Verde,             " 

13.13 

22 

27.53 

4.82 

22.76 

Whipple  Barracks,  " 

17.06 

20 

26.75 

1002 

16.73 

Fort  Craig,  New  Mexico 

10.84 

24 

24.58 

4.63 

19.95 

Santa  Fe,              " 

14.69 

39 

24.80 

7.76 

17.05 

Fort  Selden,         " 

857 

18 

12.60 

3.49 

9.11 

Fort  Stanton,       " 

19.05 

23 

28.70 

12.63 

16.07 

Fort  Collins,  Colorado 

1375 

16 

14.48 

9.70 

4.78 

Colorado  Springs,  " 

14.79 

17 

18.56 

9.12 

9.44 

Denver,                   " 

14.32 

21 

20.12 

9.51 

10.61 

Pike's  Peak,           " 

28.05 

18 

4457 

9.28 

35.29 

Fort  Garland,         " 

12.74 

12 

42.34 

7.44 

34.90 

Fort  Lyon,              " 

11.07 

11 

13.47 

4.54 

8.93 

Blue  Creek,   Utah 

8.27 

14 

11.94 

4.13 

7.81 

Corinne,               " 

11.58 

21 

18.95 

5.41 

13.54 

Camp  Douglas,  ' 

17.41 

24 

28.00 

6.73 

21.27 

Ogden, 

13.46 

21 

20.60 

6.54 

14.06 

Promontory,        ' 

7.61 

21 

14.67 

3.30 

11.37 

Salt  Lake  City,  ' 

16.85 

29 

38.20 

10.94 

27.26 

Terrace, 

4.29 

21 

10.04 

0.76 

9.28 

here  most  strikingly  manifested.  There  is  not  a  single 
station  (with  the  exception  of  Pike's  Peak,  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  over  14,000  feet)  where  a  series  of  observations 
of  any  considerable  length  has  been  taken,  in  the  arid 
region,  where  the  annual  precipitation  averages  as 


38  IRRIGATION  OF  THE  DOAB. 

much  as  twenty  inches :  in  all  but  five  of  these  stations 
it  falls  below  fifteen,  and  in  one-third  of  them  below 
ten. 

This  scantiness  of  the  rainfall  in  the  arid  regions 
of  the  United  States  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the 
abundance  of  the  precipitation  over  a  large  part  of 
India  where  irrigation  is  extensively  employed.  Thus, 
in  the  Northwest  Provinces,  including  Oudh,  where 
one  third  of  the  cultivated  land  is  irrigated,  the  average 
annual  rainfall  is  thirty-six  inches,  or  about  the  same 
as  that  of  Western  New  York  and  Northern  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois. 

The  most  gigantic  of  the  Indian  system  of  irrigation 
works  is  that  by  which  the  districts  of  the  Doab,  or  the 
high  ground  lying  between  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges, 
are  supplied  with  water.  For  this  purpose  nearly  the 
whole  visible  stream  of  this  river  in  the  winter  and 
spring,  before  it  has  been  swollen  by  the  melting  of  the 
snows  of  the  Himalaya  is  taken,  at  the  point  where  it 
leaves  the  mountains  and  enters  the  plains  (Hurdwar), 
and  conveyed  in  an  artificial  channel  two  hundred  feet 
wide  and  twenty  feet  in  depth,  the  water  itself  being 
ten  feet  deep.  This  canal,  after  passing  through  a 
region  where  the  engineering  difficulties  were  tremen- 
dous, finally  reaches  the  water-shed  between  the  Ganges 
and  the  Jumna.  This  and  another  canal,  taken  out  of 
the  Ganges  200  miles  lower  down,  are  capable  of  dis- 
charging 10,000  cubic  feet  per  second,  and  this  great 
body  of  water  is  distributed  by  means  of  a  main  chan- 
nel more  than  a  thousand  miles  long,  with  four  thousand 
miles  of  distributing  channels. 

There  is  an  important  question  connected  with  the 


EFFECTS  OF  OVER  IRRIGATION.         39 

subject  of  irrigation,  namely,  that  of  the  effect  on  the 
soil  of  a  long  continuance  of  the  process,  or  of  what 
has  sometimes  been  called  "over  irrigation,"  which 
really  means  "  long  continued  irrigation."  The  saline 
ingredients  which  are  contained  in  the  water  used  are 
left  behind,  of  course,  as  evaporation  takes  place,  and 
this  residuum  accumulates  with  greater  or  less  rapidity 
according  to  the  quantity  and  purity  of  the  water  sup- 
plied to  the  soil.  The  smaller  the  rainfall  of  the  irri- 
gated regions  the  more  rapid  will  be  the  accumulation 
of  the  saline  matter,  other  things  being  equal,  since 
this  deposit  is  liable  to  be  dissolved  and  carried  off  by 
the  rain-water,  which  is  itself  almost  chemically  pure. 
Hence,  in  regions  like  the  larger  part  of  India,  where 
irrigation  is  practised  on  a  large  scale  coincidently 
with  a  very  considerable  amount  of  precipitation,  the 
results  of  a  long  continued  artificial  supply  of  water  to 
the  surface  are  manifested  only  to  a  comparatively 
small  extent,  the  surface  soil  being  cleansed,  as  it  were, 
by  the  occasional  heavy  falls  of  rain. 

But  even  in  India  this  deleterious  effect  of  extensive 
irrigation  seems  already  to  be  manifesting  itself,  and,  in 
certain  districts,  to  an  alarming  degree.  This  fact  is 
admitted  by  some  of  the  best  authorities  on  Indian 
engineering  matters.  In  support  of  this  statement  the 
following  quotations  are  given  from  a  work  the  object 
of  which  is  to  call  attention  to  the  extravagance  of  the 
Indian  government,  and  the  injury  which  this  enormous 
expenditure  on  public  works,  especially  on  irrigation, 
is  doing  to  that  country.  "  Secondly  —  and  this  is  a 
still  more  serious  set-off,  affecting  alike  the  North-West 
Provinces  and  the  Punjab  —  there  has  been  a  great  loss 


40  OVER  IRRIGATION  IN  INDIA. 

of  land  revenue  owing  to  increased  exudation  of  reh 
or  saline  efflorescence,  in  many  of  the  canal-irrigated 
districts.  This  is  what  Mr.  A.  0.  Hume  writes:  'In 
Oudh,  the  Punjab,  and  the  North-West  Provinces  the 
soils  contain  an  appreciable  mixture  of  saline  particles. 
With  the  construction  of  high-level  canals  the  subsoil 
water-level  is  raised,  the  surface  flooded,  the  earth 
yields  up  its  soluble  salts  to  the  water,  which  again 
restores  them  (but  on  the  surface)  as  it  passes  in  va- 
pour. At  first  the  result  may  be  good,  and  marvellous 
are  the  crops  that  have  been  raised  in  the  Doab  on  the 
first  introduction  of  canal-irrigation,  owing  to  the  first 
slender  doses  of  potash  and  chloride  of  sodium.  But 
nature  works  on  blindly  and  unceasingly.  The  water 
below  searches  out  one  by  one  each  soluble  particle 
in  excess  of  the  particular  soil's  capacity  of  retention, 
and,  as  it  slowly  creeps  up  by  capillary  attraction,  leaves 
these  ever  behind  it  on  the  surface.  Time  passes  on ; 
some  crops  begin  to  be  unprofitable.  In  the  hottest 
time  of  year  a  glimmer  as  though  of  hoar  frost  over- 
spreads the  land.  .  .  .  Along  the  little  old  Western 
Jumna  Canal  thousands  of  fields  are  to  be  seen  thus 
sterilized.  Along  the  course  of  the  mighty  Ganges 
Canal,  a  work  as  it  were  but  of  yesterday,  the  dreary, 
wintry-looking  rime  is  already  in  many  places  creeping 
over  the  soil.  .  .  .  The  time  must  come  when  some  of 
the  richest  arable  tracts  in  Northern  India  will  have 
become  howling  saline  deserts.'  And  this  terrible  fact 
is  admitted  by  the  engineers  themselves.  Thus  Sir  An- 
drew Clarke,  late  Public  Works  Minister  in  India,  writes 
of  the  'vast  oosur  plains,  within  easy  reach  of  the 
canal,  lying  waste  and  barren/  and  the  white  patches 


EFFECTS  OF  OVER  IRRIGATION.  41 

called  reh.  '  They  represent  a  serious  loss  to  Govern- 
ment, the  reh  especially  so,  for  it  is  found  to  spread  in 
a  most  alarming  way  with  the  extension  of  irrigation/ 
...  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  canal  [the  Sirhind] 
will  prove  a  real  blessing  to  the  Punjab,  but  the  note 
of  warning,  struck  by  Lord  Ripon  in  declaring  it  open,, 
points  to  serious  dangers  ahead.  ;  I  am/  he  said,  <  a 
warm  friend  of  irrigation,  but  I  must  express  my  belief 
that  it  is  possible  to  have  too  much  of  a  good  thing.  .  .  . 
It  is  found  that,  although  for  a  few  years  after  the 
opening  of  a  new  canal  the  increase  of  fertility  of  the 
irrigated  country  is  great  and  striking,  a  time  comes 
when  the  crops  begin  to  fall  off,  and  the  land  com- 
mences to  show  signs  of  decline.'  .  .  .  Anyhow,  till  the 
reh  difficulty  is  satisfactorily  solved,  it  seems  absurd  for 
the  Famine  Commission  to  propose  a,  further  extension 
of  the  Western  Jumna  Canal  through  the  districts  north- 
west of  Delhi."  1 

Similar  facts  connected  with  the  subject  of  long 
continued  or  excessive  irrigation  have  been  frequently 
observed  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  have  been 
more  or  less  carefully  investigated.  The  decay,  loss  of 
fertility,  and  consequent  partial  or  entire  abandonment 
of  extensive  areas  of  the  earth's  surface,  once  densely 
populated,  is  a  matter  which  has  excited  much  com- 
ment. Various  districts  not  very  far  removed  from 
the  Mediterranean,  and  farther  east,  in  Syria,  Armenia, 
and  Mesopotamia,  are  the  localities  where  these  changes 
of  physical  conditions  within  the  historical  period  have 
been  most  clearly  perceived  and  most  generally  ad- 

1  A.  K.  Connell.  The  Economic  Revolution  of  India,  and  the  Public 
Works  Policy.  London,  1883,  pp.  121,  122,  127,  128. 


42         PHYSICAL  DECAY  OF  CERTAIN  COUNTRIES. 

mitted  to  have  taken  place.  The  most  popular  opinion 
in  regard  to  the  cause  of  these  changes  is,  that  they 
have  been,  in  large  part  at  least,  the  result  of  neglect 
or  hostility  on  the  part  of  man.1 

The  present  writer  is  of  opinion  that  the  physical 
decay  of  the  regions  in  question  has  been  chiefly  caused 
by  a  change  in  its  climatic  conditions,  a  positive  dimin- 
ution of  the  precipitation  having  taken  place,  and  that 
this  change  has  manifested  itself  over  a  large  part 
of  the  earth's  surface,  having  been  begun  long  before 
the  historic  period,  and  being  still  active.2  This  de- 
siccation, of  course,  connects  itself  intimately  with  the 
subject  of  irrigation,  since  the  more  widely  the  dimin- 
ution of  an  already  scanty  rainfall  has  been  felt,  the 
more  extensive  have  been  the  efforts  to  remedy  this 
growing  deficiency  by  artificial  means. 

The  subject  of  the  deterioration  of  the  soil  as  a 
consequence  of  long  continued  irrigation  has  also  been 
discussed  in  this  country  in  connection  with  what  has 
been  observed  in  California,  and  especially  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  the  San  Joaquin  "Valley,  where,  to  use  the 

1  Thus  Mr.  G.  P.  Marsh,  in  "  The  Earth  Modified  by  Human  Action," 
(New  York,  1874,)  makes  the  following  statement :  "  The  decay  of  these 
once  nourishing  countries  is  partly  due,  no  doubt,  to  that  class  of  geo- 
logical causes  whose  action  we  can  neither  resist  nor  guide,  and  partly 
also  to  the  direct  violence  of  hostile  human  force ;  but  it  is,  in  a  far  greater 
proportion,  either  the  result  of  man's  ignorant  disregard  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  or  the  incidental  consequence  of  war  and  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  and  misrule."     The  countries  to  which  reference  is  here  made 
are  "  Northern  Africa,  the  greater  Arabian  peninsula,  Syria,  Mesopo- 
tamia, Armenia,  and  many  other  provinces  of  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  Sicily, 
and  parts  of  even  Italy  andSpain."     Loc.  cit.,  pp.  4,  5.     The  same  state- 
ments are  repeated  in  the  edition  of  1885,  pp.  3,  4. 

2  See  the  author's  "Climatic  Changes  of  Later  Geological  Times," 
(Cambridge,  Mass.,  1882,)  Chapters  II.  and  III.,  where  this  question  is 
discussed  at  very  considerable  length. 


ALKALINE  DEPOSITS  IN  CALIFORNIA.  43 

words  of  the  principal  scientific  investigator  (Professor 
E.  W.  Hilgard)  of  this  matter,  "  it  was  not  until  it 
began  to  be  noted  that  in  the  irrigated  districts  of  the 
Kern  and  Tulare  Valley,  the  alkali  was  continually 
extending  its  area,  and  seriously  damaging  the  wheat 
crop  where  before  there  had  been  no  signs  of  it,  that 
public  interest  was  aroused." 1 

The  phenomena  exhibited  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley 
are  thus  described  by  Professor  Hilgard : 2  "  The  rain- 
fall in  this  region  is  usually  so  small  (from  five  to  six 
inches)  as  to  suffice  only  for  the  moistening  of  the  soil 
to  the  depth  of  a  few  feet ;  and  during  the  time  required 
for  the  evaporation  of  this  natural  moisture  the  short- 
lived vegetation  of  the  region  rapidly  passes  through  its 
development.  That  vegetation  consists  of  a  compara- 
tively small  number  of  species  of  bright  spring  flowers, 
which  in  their  season  cover  the  entire  country  with  a 
dense  beautiful  carpet,  one  and  the  same  flower  oc- 
cupying the  ground  almost  exclusively  at  times  for 
many  square  miles  by  virtue  of  the  law  of  the  '  survival 
of  the  fittest.'  Were  there  any  crop  of  a  habit  similar 
to  these  flowers  that  could  be  profitably  grown  on  these 
plains,  irrigation  could  obviously  be  dispensed  with. 
The  settlers  of  the  region  have  tried  what  seems  to  be 
the  next  best  thing,  viz. :  to  grow  grain  crops  of  a 
short  period  of  growth,  and  therefore  needing  irrigation 
only  during  a  small  portion  of  the  dry  season.  In  so 

1  See  "  Alkali  Lands,  Irrigation,  and  Drainage  in  their  Mutual  Rela- 
tions," by  E.  W.  Hilgard,  Professor  of   Agriculture  and  Director  of 
Experiment  Station.   Sacramento,  1892.    This  is  a  pamphlet  published 
by  the  College  of  Agriculture,  University  of  California.     It  is  a  second 
edition  of  an  Appendix  to  the  Report  for  the  year  1890. 

2  Loc.  cit.,  p.  15. 


44  ALKALINE  DEPOSITS. 

doing,  they  have  moistened  the  soil  to  a  considerably 
greater  depth  than  was  reached  by  the  rain-water 
before,  and  as  a  consequence  the  annual  evaporation 
has  greatly  increased.  The  irrigation  water,  moreover, 
has  brought  with  it  from  these  depths  all  the  supply  of 
alkali  salts  that  before  had  gradually  been  washed  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  ordinary  rainfall  by  an  occasional 
wet  season.  Each  succeeding  irrigation,  followed  by 
evaporation,  tends  to  accumulate  the  salts  nearer  the 
surface,  so  that  finally  the  root-crowns  of  the  grain  crops 
are  ' burnt  up'  before  even  beginning  to  head.  The 
evil  will,  of  course,  be  greatly  aggravated  if  the  water 
used  for  irrigation  originally  contains  any  considerable 
amount  of  alkaline  salts,  which  are  superadded  to  those 
already  in  the  soil  strata." 

The  subject  of  the  origin  of  the  "  reh"  or  alkali  on 
irrigated  lands  is  discussed  at  some  length  in  Professor 
Hilgard's  report,  and  the  following  quotation  from  that 
document  will  give,  in  a  few  words,  his  most  essen- 
tial conclusions,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  question 
of  the  difficulties  of  the  irrigation  problem :  "  From 
the  facts  above  given  regarding  the  alkali  soils  and 
irrigation  waters  of  California,  the  importance  of  inves- 
tigating thoroughly  not  only  the  quantity  but  also  the 
quality  of  the  water  available  for  irrigation  in  the  arid 
regions,  is  sufficiently  obvious.  The  facts  as  nature 
has  made  them  should  be  elicited  and  plainly  set  before 
the  people,  so  that  money  may  not  be  invested  in  use- 
less undertakings,  or  damage  done  which  it  may  be 
difficult  to  undo  thereafter.  There  are  probably  but 
few  rivers  in  the  world  of  such  composition  or  natural 
purity  that  continued  irrigation  without  correlative  un- 


DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION.  45 

der  drainage  can  be  practised  without  in  the  end  caus- 
ing an  injurious  accumulation  of  soluble  salts  in  the  soil. 
In  India,  according  to  the  testimony  of  official  reports, 
quoted  herein,  the  evil  effects  of  such  practice  have 
become  painfully  apparent,  and  to  such  an  extent  that 
after  the  expenditure  of  enormous  sums  for  bringing 
the  water  upon  the  fields,  the  Government  now  finds 
itself  face  to  face  with  the  costly  problem  of  its  eco- 
nomical removal,  by  drainage,  so  as  to  relieve  the  soil  of 
the  accumulated  '  alkali/  which  has  rendered  it  unfit  for 
cultivation.  A.n  early  attention  to  this  matter,  with 
such  foresight  as  will  prevent  the  occurrence  of  similar 
difficulties,  cannot  be  too,  earnestly  recommended  to  all 
interested  in  lands  needing  irrigation,  from  the  Pacific 
coast  to  Colorado  and  Kansas."  1 

The  desirability  of  drainage  as  a  prevention  of  the 
accumulation  of  alkali  on  and  near  the  surface  depends 
on  the  fact  that  this  seems  to  be  brought  about,  to  a 
considerable  extent  at  least,  not  so  much  by  the  actual 
evaporation  on  the  surface  of  the  irrigation  water  as  by 
the  bringing  up  from  below  by  capillary  attraction  and 
evaporation  of  the  subsoil  water  holding  saline  matter 
in  solution.  The  effect  of  irrigation  is  to  raise  the 
water  level,  thus  bringing  fresh  alkaline  particles  to 
the  surface,  from  which,  in  a  hot  and  dry  climate, 
evaporation  is  exceedingly  rapid,  and  the  deposit  of 
saline  mater  proportionally  large.  The  remedy  for 
this,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Indian  officials,  is  deep 
drainage,  the  object  of  this  being,  as  expressed  by  the 
most  concise  and  comprehensive  term,  the  remedying  of 
defective  water  circulation.  The  great  difficulty  and  ex- 

1  Loc.  cit.,  page  56. 


46  OVER  IRRIGATION  IN  INDIA. 

pense  of  any  system  of  deep  drainage  in  India  has  been 
repeatedly  admitted  by  various  officials.  That  there  is 
still  considerable  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the  causes  of 
the  development  of  alkali  or  "reh"  on  irrigated  sur- 
faces seems  pretty  evident,  and  in  proof  of  this  state- 
ment the  following  quotation  is  offered.  It  is  an 
extract  from  a  report  of  the  "  Keh  Committee "  for 
the  Aligarh  District,  by  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  India,  Mr.  H.  B.  Medlicott. 

"  Observation  and  experiment  cannot  be  profitably 
made  by  men,  however  otherwise  intelligent,  without 
any  scientific  knowledge  of  the  matter  under  inves- 
tigation. The  almost  total  absence  hitherto  of  this 
element  in  reh  investigations,  is  the  most  instructive 
point  in  its  history ;  and  I  would  express  a  hope  that 
the  Aligarh  Committee  may  mark  a  turning  point  in 
this  report.  .  .  .  The  resulting  information  will  depend 
chiefly  upon  the  amount  of  informed  intelligence  ap- 
plied from  the  beginning.  Unless  the  proposed  experi- 
ments are  conducted  by  some  competent  head,  the 
question  will  drift  helplessly,  as  it  has  up  to  this  day. 
I  would  therefore  advise  that  a  well  qualified  agri- 
cultural chemist  be  engaged  for  five  years  under  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  to  devote  himself  to  this 
special  investigation." 

The  question  of  the  possibility  of  irrigation  in  the 
arid  region  by  means  of  Artesian  wells  is  one  of  great 
scientific  interest,  and  of  some  practical  importance. 
This  matter  has  received  considerable  attention  in  the 
course  of  the  various  State  Geological  Surveys,  as  also 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  and 
the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Census  Bulletin  No. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS.  47 

193  (Census  of  1890),  by  Mr.  F.  H.  Newell,  is  devoted 
to  the  subject  of  "  Artesian  Wells  for  Irrigation."  l 

An  Artesian  well  is  properly  a  boring  of  considerable 
depth,  from  which  water  rises  to  the  surface  and  over- 
flows, without  the  necessity  of  pumping.  Deep  wells 
from  which  the  water  does  not  rise  to  the  surface,  but 
has  to  be  raised  by  means  of  a  steam-engine  or  some 
other  mechanical  contrivance,  were  formerly  called 
"deep  wells,"  or  "bored  wells";  but  at  the  present 
time,  especially  in  the  United  States,  any  bored  well, 
even  if  not  very  deep,  is  frequently  designated  as  an 
"Artesian  well."2 

The  presence  of  water-bearing  strata  at  some  depth 
beneath  the  surface  is  a  fact  of  quite  common  occur- 
rence in  various  parts  of  the  world  ;  but  the  conditions 
favoring  a  rise  to  the  surface  or  an  overflow  of  this 
water,  when  such  a  stratum  has  been  reached  by  a 
bore-hole,  are  much  less  frequently  met  with.  To  cause 
water  to  rise  to  the  surface  and  overflow  it,  the  water- 

1  This  paper  bears  the  date  of  June  11, 1892.    Besides  this,  there  may 
be  mentioned,  as  having  been  published  by  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, a  report  on  "  Artesian  Wells  upon  the  Great  Plains,"  drawn  up  by  a 
Commission  appointed  "  to  examine  a  portion  of  the  Great  Plains  east  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  report  upon  the  localities  deemed  most  favor- 
able for  making  experimental  borings."     This  report,  signed  by  Messrs. 
C.  A.  White  and  Samuel  Aughey,  Commissioners,  was  published  in  1882. 
A  paper  "  On  the  Requisite  and  Qualifying  Conditions  of  Artesian  Wells," 
by  Thomas  C.  Chamberlin,  is  contained  in  the  Fifth  Annual  Report  of 
the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  published  in  1885.     The  reports  of  Richard 
J.  Hinton,  "  Special  Agent  [of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for]  Artesian, 
Underflow,  and  Irrigation  Investigation"  (1887-91),  deal  largely  with  the 
question  of  irrigation  by  means  of  Artesian  wells  in  various  sections  of 
the  Arid  Region,  as  also  on  the  Great  Plains. 

2  "  The  term  Artesian  was  originally  only  applied  to  wells  which  over- 
flowed, but  nearly  all  deep  wells  are  now  so  called,  without  reference  to 
their  water-level,  if  they  have  bore-holes."    Ernest  Spon,  in  "  The  Present 
Practice  of  Sinking  and  Boring  Wells,"  2d  Edition,  p.  2.     London,  1885. 


48  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — PARIS  BASIN. 

bearing  bed  must  be  both  covered  and  underlain  by 
impermeable  strata,  and  there  must  be  hydrostatic 
pressure  due  to  the  fact  that  the  outcrop  of  the  bed 
so  situated  is  at  a  higher  level  than  the  orifice  of  the 
bore-hole  through  which  water  is  to  rise.  The  extent 
of  the  uncovered  surface  of  the  permeable  stratum,  and 
the  average  quantity  of  rain  which  falls  upon  it,  are 
the  essential  factors  determining  the  amount  of  water 
which  can  be  obtained  by  an  Artesian  boring  penetrat- 
ing that  stratum,  and  on  the  elevation  of  the  source  of 
supply  or  outcrop  of  permeable  rock  depends  the  so- 
lution of  the  question  whether  the  water  will  rise  to 
the  surface,  and,  if  so,  with  what  amount  of  pressure; 
i,hat  is,  to  what  height  it  will  rise  if  confined  within 
a  tube  and  not  allowed  to  flow  away  at  the  orifice  of 
the  bore-hole. 

What  is  commonly  designated  by  geologists  as  a 
" basin  structure"  is,  therefore,  an  essential  feature 
of  a  region  in  which  a  flow  of  what  may  properly  be 
called  "  Artesian  water "  can  be  obtained.  Such  a 
structure  is  typically  well  developed  in  the  Paris 
basin,  where  the  Lower  Greensand  —  an  assemblage 
of  permeable  strata  —  is  covered  by  a  thick  mass  of 
chalk,  between  which  and  the  underlying  water-bear- 
ing beds  there  is  a  series  of  impermeable  strata,  rep- 
resenting the  Gault  of  the  English  geologists,  of  no 
very  great  thickness,  but  sufficiently  argillaceous  to 
prevent  the  escape  of  water  from  the  underlying 
greensand.1 

1  For  some  remarks  in  regard  to  possible  modifications  of  the  typical 
conditions  under  which  Artesian  water  is  obtained,  see  further  on,  in 
connection  with  the  descriptions  of  various  wells  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley, Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  California. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — PARIS  BASIN.  49 

The  well  of  Grenelle,  at  Paris,  begun  in  1833  and 
completed  in  1841,  draws  its  supply  from  the  Lower 
Greensand,  at  a  depth  of  about  1,800  feet  beneath  the 
surface,  above  which  it  rises  to  the  height  of  120  feet, 
having  a  temperature  of  82°.  This  is  the  most  famous 
of  all  Artesian  wells,  because  it  was  the  first  to  furnish 
water  from  so  great  a  depth.  Before  this  well  was 
bored  a  considerable  amount  of  water  had  been  ob- 
tained from  the  Tertiary  strata  in  the  vicinity  of 
Paris,  as  well  as  in  various  other  localities  in  the  North 
of  France.  Some  of  these  borings  yielded  a  large  sup- 
ply of  water,  but  in  no  case  as  much  as  that  furnished 
by  the  Grenelle  well,  nor  did  it  in  any  instance  rise 
to  a  considerable  height  above  the  surface,  the  geologi- 
cal conditions  for  obtaining  an  Artesian  flow  of  water 
from  the  Tertiary  not  being  as  favorable  as  those  gov- 
erning the  supply  from  beneath  the  chalk. 

The  outcrop  of  the  Lower  Greensand,  from  which 
formation  the  well  of  Grenelle  is  fed  with  water,  is  in  a 
zone  lying  about  a  hundred  miles  east  of  Paris,  and  at 
an  average  elevation  of  about  300  feet  above  the  orifice 
of  the  bore-hole.  The  average  rainfall  of  the  region  is 
probably  about  twenty-two  inches,  and  the  area  over 
which  the  water-bearing  stratum  is  exposed  is  not  far 
from  one  hundred  square  miles.1 

The  success  of  the  Grenelle  well  led  to  various  efforts 
on  a  much  larger  scale  to  obtain  Artesian  water  from 
the  strata  beneath  the  chalk  of  the  Paris  basin.  The 
well  of  Passy  is  the  most  famous  of  these,  chiefly  on 
account  of  the  great  diameter  of  the  bore-hole,  which 

1  See  "  A  Geological  Inquiry  respecting  the  Water-bearing  Strata 
around  London,"  by  Joseph  Prestwich,  Jr.,  London,  1857,  p.  304. 


50  DEEP  BORED  WELLS. 

is  about  three  and  a  quarter  feet,  while  that  of  the 
Grenelle  well  was  only  eight  inches.  The  Passy  well 
was  begun  in  1856,  and  completed,  after  surmounting 
many  difficulties  caused  by  the  caving  in  of  the  upper 
strata,  in  1861,  when,  from  a  depth  of  1,914  feet,  water 
rose  to  the  amount,  at  first,  of  about  three  and  a  third 
million  gallons  a  day.  This  afterwards  increased,  for 
a  time,  to  five  and  a  half  million,  and  afterwards  de- 
clined to  about  four  million,  at  which  figure  it  contin- 
ued for  some  time.  Owing  to  the  defective  character 
of  the  tubing  of  the  Passy  well  its  yield  has  fallen  off 
greatly,  and  at  latest  accounts  was  not  so  much  as  half 
a  million  of  gallons  a  day.  Had  the  tubing  been  made 
of  iron,  and  sufficiently  strong  to  stand  the  pressure  of 
the  water,  the  original  yield  of  four  or  five  million  gal- 
lons would  have  been  continued,  in  all  probability,  until 
the  present  time.1 

Water  supply  from  deep  bored  wells  which  are  not 
properly  Artesian,  but  from  which  water  is  raised  to 
the  surface  by  pumping,  are  very  common  in  different 
parts  of  the  world,  and  especially  in  England.  In  Lon- 
don many  wells  bored  in  the  beds  of  the  Lower  Ter- 
tiary, lying  under  the  London  clay,  at  a  depth  of  from 
a  hundred  to  two  hundred  feet  below  the  level  of 
the  Thames,  were  originally  Artesian,  —  that  is,  their 
water  rose  above  the  surface.  After  some  years,  this 
source  of  supply  having  been  drawn  upon  too  heavily, 
the  water  level  sank  to  from  sixty  to  seventy  feet 
below  high-water  mark. 

London,  from  a  geological  point  of  view,  is  not  as 
favorably  situated  as  Paris  for  procuring  Artesian 

1  See  Spon,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  224-232. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — LONDON  BASIN.  51 

water.  There  is  a  notch  in  the  lip  of  the  London 
basin  made  by  the  passage  of  the  Thames  out  of  it, 
and  this  is  at  a  level  of  about  a  hundred  feet  below 
the  rest  of  the  rim.  This,  of  course,  diminishes  the 
capacity  of  the  basin  as  a  reservoir.  Again,  various 
deep  borings  made  in  and  near  London,  which  have 
passed  entirely  through  the  chalk,  have  in  most  cases 
failed  to  reveal  the  presence  of  the  Lower  Green- 
sand,  which  is  the  chief  water-bearing  formation  in  the 
Paris  basin.  In  all  the  London  deep  borings  the  Up- 
per Green  sand  and  the  Gault  succeeded  each  other 
in  due  order,  but  beneath  the  latter  a  great  variety 
of  beds  has  been  found.  Of  thirteen  deep  borings 
of  which  the  records  are  given  in  the  publications  of 
the  English  Geological  Survey,1  only  one  (that  at  the 
brewery  of  the  Messrs.  Meux)  seems  positively  to 
have  passed  through  any  appreciable  thickness  of  the 
Lower  Greensand,  which  there  had  a  thickness  of  some- 
what over  sixty  feet,  but  which  was  lithologically  very 
different  from  that  formation  at  its  outcrop,  being 
composed  of  a  limestone  of  oolitic  structure.  In  most 
of  the  other  localities  where  deep  borings  have  been 
made  in  the  London  basin,  much  older  rocks  have  been 
reached  by  the  drill  after  passing  through  the  Gault. 
These  rocks  have  been  shown  by  examination  of  the 
cores  obtained  with  the  diamond  drill  to  be  of  vari- 
ous ages :  in  one  case,  Lower  Carboniferous ;  in  two, 
Devonian  ;  in  one,  Upper  Silurian ;  and  in  two  oth- 
ers, probably  Triassic  or  Devonian.  In  short,  there  is 

i  See  W.  Whittaker's  "Guide  to  the  Geology  of  London  and  its 
Neighborhood,"  (a  publication  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  England  and 
Wales,)  Third  Edition,  London,  1880,  p.  19. 


52        DEEP  BORED  WELLS  —  ENGLAND. 

abundant  evidence  that  there  is  a  range  of  old  rocks 
under  London  which  has  unfavorably  affected  the 
development  of  the  formation  which  has  been  so  prolific 
of  water  in  the  Paris  basin. 

There  are,  however,  numerous  deep  bored  wells  in 
London  and  its  vicinity,  which  draw  their  supply  from 
the  chalk :  these,  however,  all  have  to  be  pumped.  But 
a  small  part  of  the  water  supply  of  this  great  city  is 
obtained  from  this  source,  most  of  it  being  taken  from 
the  Thames  and  the  Lea* 

In  former  years  many  large  towns  in  Central  and 
Northern  England  were  supplied  in  large  part  with 
water  from  deep  bored  wells  in  the  New  Red  Sand- 
stone, —  a  formation  underlying  a  large  area  in  that 
region.  Birmingham  and  Liverpool  were  among  the 
cities  which  depended  on  this  source  of  supply.  The 
water  furnished  by  these  wells  was  never  very  satis- 
factory as  to  quality  or  quantity,  and  they  have  been 
gradually  abandoned,  as  far  as  it  was  possible  for  this 
to  be  done,  in  favor  of  water  obtained  by  means  of 
storage  reservoirs,  in  which  the  water  is  collected  from 
some  suitably  situated  drainage  area. 

The  water  supply  of  Manchester  for  a  long  time  came 
from  deep  wells  in  the  New  Red  Sandstone ;  but  this 
having  been  found  to  be  an  entirely  unsatisfactory 
method,  a  tract  of  high  land  lying  between  that  city 
and  Sheffield,  and  drained  by  the  river  Etherow  and 
its  tributaries,  was  selected  as  a  gathering  ground, 
and  seven  reservoirs  formed  there,  having  a  collective 
capacity  of  about  4,590  million  gallons,  and  capable 
of  supplying  eighteen  million  gallons  a  day.  Even 
this  quantity  proved  insufficient,  so  that,  as  long  ago 


WATER  SUPPLY  OF  LIVERPOOL.  53 

as  1879,  it  was  decided  to  seek  an  additional  supply, 
and  Lake  Thirlmere  was  finally  fixed  upon  as  the 
locality  from  which  it  was  to  be  obtained.  From  this 
lake,  the  level  of  which  was  raised  by  a  dam,  water  is 
conducted  by  tunnels  or  a  covered  conduit  for  a  dis- 
tance of  a  hundred  miles  to  the  vicinity  of  Manchester, 
which  city  will  thus  be  supplied,  when  the  works 
have  been  entirely  completed,  with  fifty  million  gal- 
lons a  day.  Liverpool,  which  also  liad  long  been  fur- 
nished with  water  from  deep  wells  in  the  New  Red 
Sandstone,  finally,  after  much  investigation,  selected 
the  valley  of  the  Vyrnwy  River,  a  tributary  of  the 
Severn,  as  a  site  for  a  large  storage  reservoir.  Here 
a  dam  has  been  built  capable  of  holding  back  a  body 
of  water  having  an  area  of  1,121  acres  and  a  maxi- 
mum depth  of  eighty-four  feet.  This  work,  begun  in 
1880,  was  completed  in  1889,  and  is  calculated  to  fur- 
nish forty  million  gallons  per  day.1 

The  Artesian  and  deep  wells  of  which  a  brief  notice 
has  thus  been  given  are  intended  for  the  water  supply 
of  large  cities,  and  not  at  all  for  irrigation.  Indeed, 

1  As  this  work  is  one  of  great  importance,  and  excelled  by  few,  if  any, 
of  a  similar  kind  in  the  world,  the  following  particulars  may  be  appended 
in  regard  to  it.  This  dam,  of  solid  masonry  throughout,  is  about  140  feet 
high  and  1,172  long  across  the  top.  The  foundation  extends,  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  valley,  60  feet  beneath  the  surface  to  solid  rock,  where  the 
bottom  of  the  dam  is  132  feet  below  the  level  of  the  lake ;  its  height  from 
the  lowest  part  of  the  foundation  to  the  parapet  of  the  roadway  along  its 
edge  is  161  feet.  The  lake  thus  artificially  formed  is  4£  miles  long,  and 
from  J  to  |  of  a  mile  wide.  The  main  portion  of  the  aqueduct  which 
conveys  the  water  of  the  lake  to  the  service  reservoirs  will  consist  of 
three  lines  of  cast-iron  pipes,  one  of  which,  42£  inches  in  diameter,  has 
already  been  laid.  The  distance  between  the  lake  and  the  service  reser- 
voirs, near  Liverpool,  is  over  sixty-eight  miles.  The  lake,  at  its  lowest 
available  level,  is  496  feet  higher  than  the  top  level  of  the  service  reser- 
voir at  Prescot. 


54  ARTESIAN  WELLS  —  ALGIERS. 

it  is  not  known  to  the  present  writer  that  this  use  of 
water  obtained  from  great  depths  is  anywhere  practised 
on  a  scale  of  any  magnitude,  either  in  Europe  or  Asia. 
There  are,  however,  Artesian  wells  in  Northern  Africa, 
the  water  of  which  is  used  for  irrigational  purposes, 
and  which  are  quite  celebrated  on  account  of  the  pecu- 
liarities of  their  geographical  position  and  mode  of  use. 
The  wells  in  question  are  by  no  means  novelties,  for  it 
is  known  that  the  Romans,  and,  before  their  time,  the 
Egyptians,  obtained  by  various  methods  water  which 
they  used  for  cultivation,  and  in  other  ways,  on  the 
northern  and  eastern  borders  of  the  Sahara.  Rivers 
were  dammed,  and  reservoirs  constructed,  from  which 
the  water  was  taken  in  canals,  in  a  manner  quite  simi- 
lar to  that  practised  in  modern  times.  It  is  believed 
that  various  districts  which  now  are  entirely  dry  and 
deserted,  but  which  once  were  celebrated  for  the  beauty 
of  their  vegetation  and  somewhat  densely  populated, 
were  formerly  supplied  in  this  way,  and  possibly  with 
Artesian  water  obtained  from  deep  wells. 

When  the  French  took  possession  of  Algiers,  they 
found  that  the  natives  in  certain  localities  on  the 
borders  of  the  Sahara  had  long  been  in  possession  of 
the  art  of  digging  wells,  some  of  which  were  more  than 
200  feet  deep.  The  region  where  the  water  thus  ob- 
tained had  been,  and  was  still,  of  some  importance,  lies 
to  the  southeast  of  the  city  of  Algiers,  distant  some 
two  hundred  miles,  between  Biskra  and  Tuggurt,  in 
the  valley  known  as  the  Wadi  Rihr.  Here  various 
wells  have  been  sunk,  the  well-digger  usually  com- 
ing, at  the  bottom  of  his  excavation,  on  a  bed  or  kind 
of  crust  of  hard  gypsum,  on  breaking  through  which 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — WADI  RIHK.  55 

the  water  issued  with  great  force,  and  in  considerable 
volume.  This  operation  was  attended  with  consider- 
able danger.  Moreover,  the  wells  thus  sunk  usually 
began  within  a  few  years  after  their  completion  to 
become  choked  with  sand  brought  up  from  below  or 
washed  in  from  above.  To  remove  this  was  a  very 
difficult  matter,  as  the  work  had  to  be  done  by  divers, 
who  were  able  to  remain  under  water  for  as  much  as 
five  or  six  minutes  while  clearing  away  the  obstruction 
to  the  flow  of  the  water.1  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the 
divers  to  keep  the  wells  open,  many  of  them  have  be- 
come useless,  and  several  once  flourishing  oases  had 
been  more  or  less  completely  abandoned  at  the  time 
the  French  took  possession  of  the  country.  Engineers 
acquainted  with  the  modern  methods  of  well-boring 
were,  therefore,  brought  from  Europe,  and  they  were 
successful  in  procuring,  without  difficulty,  and  in  vari- 
ous localities,  a  considerable  supply  of  Artesian  water, 
thus  restoring  prosperity  to  the  region  of  the  Wadi  Rihr 
to  such  an  extent  that  its  population  doubled  in  num- 
ber between  the  years  1856  and  1890.  The  water  thus 
obtained  is  chiefly  used  for  the  cultivation  of  the  date 
palm,  which  requires  a  large  supply  of  moisture,  and 
does  not  suffer  even  when  the  water  is  strongly  im- 
pregnated with  saline  matter,  as  is  the  case  with  all 
that  obtained  in  this  region  from  deep  wells. 

The  satisfactory  results  of  the  borings  in  the  Wadi 
Rihr  have  led  to  operations  of  a  similar  kind  in  various 
other  districts  of  the  Sahara,  some  of  which  have 

1  See,  for  a  description  of  this  process,  E.  Desor,  in  "  La  Foret  Vierge 
et  le  Sahara,"  Paris,  1879,  pp.  108-115,  quoted  from  «  Les  Puits  Artesiens 
des  Oasis  Meridionales  de  1'Algdrie,"  Alger,  1862. 


56  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — EASTERN  STATES. 

proved  successful.1  There  are  indeed  enthusiastic  in- 
dividuals who  believe  that  by  means  of  Artesian  water 
the  desert  may  be  rescued  from  sterility,  or  even  cov- 
ered with  forests  and  fertile  meadows.  Thus  far, 
however,  the  progress  in  this  direction  has  been  ex- 
tremely small.2  The  region  where  the  most  has  been 
accomplished  toward  redeeming  the  Sahara  is  still  very 
thinly  populated,  and  the  oases  have  but  a  compara- 
tively small  area  and  are  far  apart.3 

Artesian  wells,  or  those  called  Artesian,  are  numer- 
ous in  the  Atlantic  States,  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and 
the  Cordilleran  region,  and  in  certain  localities  they  are 
of  some  importance,  although,  in  general,  their  use  in 
connection  with  irrigation  is  limited  to  the  extreme 
western  part  of  the  country.  A  brief  notice  of  the 
more  important  attempts  made  in  the  Eastern  States 
to  procure  Artesian  water  may  here  be  introduced. 

Many  years  ago  the  idea  was  generally  current 
throughout  this  country  that  water  of  good  quality 
and  abundant  in  quantity  could  be  had  almost  any- 

1  See  Comptes  Rendus  des  Seances  de  la  Societe  de  Geographic,  Paris, 

1892,  containing  (on  page  179)  an  account,  by  Mr.  Georges  Rolland,  of 
borings  for  Artesian  water  at  El  Golea,  in  the  extreme  southern  part  of 
the  Algerian  Sahara,  where  a  military  post  has  been  established.     In  the 
volume  for  1893  of  the  same  journal  (page  108),  this  engineer  discusses 
the  chances  of  success  in  boring  at  Hassi  Inifel,  a  place  situated  on  the 
travelled  route  from  El  Golea  to  Ain  Salah,  and  in  the  line  of  communi- 
cation between  Algiers  and  Timbuctoo.     From  information  furnished  by 
various  authorities  it  appears  that  Wadi  Rihr,  Wargla,  and  El  Golea  are 
the  three  localities  in  Algiers  where  Artesian  borings  have  been  most  suc- 
cessful.   El  Golea  is  about  250  miles  southwest  of  Tuggurt,  and  Ain  Salah 
about  the  same  distance  farther  on  in  the  direction  of  Timbuctoo. 

2  See,  in  reference  to  this  point,  H.  Schirmer,  in  "  Le  Sahara,"  Paris, 

1893,  pp.  427,  428,  where  a  quotation  from  Largeau's  "  Le  Sahara  Alge- 
rien  "  is  given,  with  a  commentary  by  Mr.  Schirmer  himself. 

8  The  number  of  inhabitants  in  the  Wadi  Rihr  was  6,700  in  1856,  and 
13,300  in  1890. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — ATLANTIC   COAST.  57 

where  by  boring  to  a  sufficient  depth.  In  endeavor- 
ing to  prove  the  truth  of  this  theory,  much  money 
has  been  expended,  and  many  bore-holes  carried  to 
a  very  considerable  depth  at  a  great  number  of 
localities.  Some  of  these  enterprises  have  been  suc- 
cessful to  a  limited  extent ;  but  in  general  they  have 
been  failures,  because  the  water  obtained  was  either 
insufficient  in  quantity  or  unsatisfactory  in  quality. 
The  object  to  be  gained  by  these  borings  has  been 
almost  always  a  supply  of  water  for  cities,  for  impor- 
tant public  institutions,  or  for  some  kind  of  manufac- 
tory. Nowhere  east  of  the  Mississippi,  so  far  as  known, 
has  the  water  thus  obtained  been  used  for  irrigational 
purposes  or  has  any  such  use  been  contemplated. 

Before  water  had  been  introduced  into  the  large 
cities  of  the  Atlantic  Coast,  by  bringing  it  from  a 
distance  in  conduits,  it  was  very  natural  that  it  should 
have  been  sought  for  by  means  of  deep  borings.  Va- 
rious attempts  of  this  kind  were  made  in  Boston  and 
New  York.  In  the  former  city,  these  efforts  have  been 
renewed  within  the  past  five  years  without  any  success- 
ful result.  In  New  York,  it  is  said  that  there  are  as 
many  as  forty  deep  wells ;  some  of  these,  however,  are 
not  now  in  use,  and  nearly  half  of  them  are  owned  by 
breweries.  Their  depth  ranges  from  a  few  feet  to  2,000, 
and  the  diameter  of  the  bore-hole  from  two  and  a  half  to 
ten  inches;  their  capacity  varies  from  2,000  to  126,000 
gallons  per  day.  Details  in  regard  to  the  quality  of 
the  water  from  these  wells,  and  the  height  above  the 
surface  to  which  it  rises,  are  not  available.1 

i  See  W.  W.  Mather,  in  "Geology  of  New  York,"  Albany,  1843, 
pp.  146,  147,  where  it  is  stated  that  "  borings  have  often  been  made  for 


58  ARTESIAN  WELLS— ALABAMA. 

The  first  deep  wells  of  importance  in  the  United 
States  seem  to  have  been  bored  in  Alabama,  where  there 
were,  as  early  as  1848,  "  in  the  single  county  of  Greene 
upwards  of  forty  '  bored  wells/  varying  between  170 
and  600  feet  in  depth,  all  constructed  by  private  in- 
dividuals for  their  own  use." 1  Of  the  quality  and 
quantity  of  the  water  obtained  from  these  wells  the 
accounts  vary  considerably.  Professor  Tuomey,  State 
Geologist  of  Alabama,  says,  in  speaking  of  two  wells 
at  Finch's  Ferry,  "  The  water  is  the  strongest  that  I 
have  examined."  He  adds,  apparently  with  reference 
to  the  wells  of  this  region  in  general,  "  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  if  these  wells  were  not  so  numerous,  they 
would  become  places  of  resort  as  mineral  springs." 2 

Professor  A.  Winchell  also  describes3  the  Artesian 
wells  of  Alabama,  and  states  that  the  water-bearing 
strata  are  alternating  beds  of  sand  and  shale  which 
underlie  the  well-known  "rotten  limestone"  of  the 
Cretaceous  series  of  that  region.  A  table  of  seventy- 
four  wells  is  given,  which  vary  in  depths  from  90  to 
728  feet,  the  quantity  of  water  which  they  deliver 
ranging  from  3  to  1,200  gallons  per  minute.  The  well 
reported  as  yielding  the  last-named  quantity  is  the  so- 
called  "  Great  Well,"  at  Cahaba,  and  this  is  said  to  be 
728  feet  deep.  Professor  Winchell  remarks  in  regard 

Artesian  wells  in  situations  where  the  geological  structure  was  such 
that  they  could  not  be  expected  to  be  successful.  New  York  island 
is  a  good  example." 

1  See  M.  Tuomey,  in  "Report  on  the  Geology  of  South  Carolina,'* 
Columbia,  S.  C.,  1848,  p.  247.     Also,  by  the  same  author,  "  First  Biennial 
Report  on  the  Geology  of  Alabama,"  Tuskaloosa,  1850,  pp.  138-140. 

2  Loc.  cit.,  p.  139. 

8  In  "  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,"  Vol.  X.,  Albany  Meeting,  1856,  Part  II.,  pp.  94-103. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — SOUTH  CAROLINA.  59 

to  it :  "  This  is  truly  an  astonishing  well,  but  I  am 
sceptical  in  regard  to  the  alleged  quantity  of  water 
discharged."  The  water  of  this  well,  at  the  date  of  the 
article  quoted,  rose  twelve  inches  above  the  mouth  of 
the  pipe.  Some  of  the  Alabama  wells  are  said  to  be 
"highly  saline";  others  to  be  "strongly  charged  with 
sulphuretted  hydrogen."  Although  no  general  state- 
ment to  this  effect  is  made,  it  is  inferred  that  the 
water  of  all  the  wells  described  by  Professor  Winchell 
contains  a  large  amount  of  saline  matter,  and  that,  at 
all  events,  it  could  not  be  used  for  irrigation,  for  which 
purpose  it  would  not  seem  to  be  needed,  since  the 
region  is  one  of  large  rainfall. 

The  subject  of  water-supply  is  one  which  has  long 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  citizens  of  Charleston, 
S.  C.  The  rainfall  at  this  place  being  quite  large,  the 
shallow  wells  in  the  sand,  which  is  there  about"  twenty 
feet  thick  and  rests  on  a  bed  of  impermeable  clay, 
for  a  time  furnished  a  tolerably  satisfactory  supply  of 
water ;  but  this  has  been  steadily  deteriorating  in  qual- 
ity, so  that  the  necessity  of  procuring  something  better 
has  long  been  felt.  For  a  time  recourse  was  had  to 
wells  sunk  to  a  depth  of  about  sixty  feet  through  the 
clay  and  into  a  bed  of  water-bearing  sand  which  lies 
between  that  and  the  marl  beneath.  Several  "  sixty- 
foot  wells,"  as  they  were  called,  were  bored  from  1820 
on,  and  some  of  these  are  still  in  use. 

Information  in  regard  to  the  deep  wells  of  London 
having  reached  Charleston,  it  was  determined  that  an 
effort  should  be  made  to  obtain  Artesian  water  in  that 
city.  Acting  under  the  advice  of  the  State  Geologist, 
Professor  Tuomey,  and  encouraged  by  the  success  of 


60  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

similar  undertakings  in  Alabama,  a  boring  was  begun 
by  the  City  Council  in  1845.  Previous  to  this,  how- 
ever, the  United  States  authorities  had  made  an  attempt 
to  procure  Artesian  water  at  Fort  Sumter.  Both  these 
undertakings  failed  of  success  on  account  of  want  of 
skill  in  the  management  of  the  work,  the  greatest  depth 
reached  having  been  347  feet.  In  1847  the  city  au- 
thorities renewed  their  efforts,  however,  and  a  depth 
of  1,260  feet  was  reached,  at  which  water  was  obtained, 
but  in  small  quantity,  the  diameter  of  the  bore-hole 
being  only  three  inches.  Another  well  was  then  be- 
gun of  larger  bore,  but  was  stopped,  first  temporarily 
by  an  accident,  and  later  by  the  Civil  War. 

Again,  in  1876,  the  attempt  to  procure  Artesian 
water  was  renewed,  and  this  time  with  success.  The 
bore-hole  was  located  on  Calhoun  Street,  where,  at  a 
depth  of  a  little  over  1,900  feet,  a  group  of  beds  of 
water-bearing  sand  was  struck,  and  water  to  the  amount 
of  360,000  gallons  per  day  obtained.  Another  well  was 
begun  in  George  Street  immediately  after,  and  others 
have  since  been  bored  at  various  points  in  the  city  and 
in  its  vicinity.  The  quantity  of  water  which  these  wells 
afford  is,  however,  by  no  means  sufficient  for  a  city  hav- 
ing already  over  50,000  inhabitants ;  nor  is  the  quality 
satisfactory,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  table, 
which  shows  the  number  of  grains  of  solid  matter  to 
the  gallon  contained  in  the  water  of  various  Artesian 
wells  in  and  near  Charleston l :  — 

1  See  Artesian  wells  —  Report  of  Special  Committee,  in  "City  of 
Charleston  Year  Book  — 1881,"  pp.  257-315 ;  also  the  same  publication 
for  the  year  1884,  pp.  147-156,  where  will  be  found  a  report  setting  forth 
the  inadequacy  of  the  water-supply  of  the  city. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  61 

Grains  in 

Locality  of  Well.  one  gallon 

of  water. 

"  Old  Artesian  well "  corner  of  Meeting  and  Wentworth 

Streets 135.366 

Citadel  Green 65.053 

Commercial  Cotton  Press 264.481 

Chisholm  Mill 214.937 

Ashepoo  Phosphate  Company  1 167.022 

Edisto  Phosphate  Company l 149.06 

Stono  Phosphate  Company J 128.941 

A  great  number  of  deep  borings  have  been  made 
during  the  past  thirty  or  forty  years  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  with  the  expectation  of  procuring  water  suit- 
able for  the  supply  of  some  city  or  public  institution. 
Since  the  excitement  in  regard  to  the  occurrence  of 
petroleum  and  natural  gas,  the  number  of  these  bor- 
ings has  increased  indefinitely,  and  but  little  attention 
has  been  paid  to  their  yield  of  water.  In  general,  how- 
ever, it  can  be  said  that,  so  far  as  water-supply  is  con- 
cerned, they  have  all  or  nearly  all  proved  failures, 
often  because  the  flow  from  the  bore-hole  was  insuffi- 
cient, and  still  more  frequently  because,  in  addition  to 
the  scantiness  of  the  supply,  the  quality  of  the  water 
obtained  was  not  such  as  to  make  it  suitable  for  any 
use  other  than  medicinal.  In  many  cases,  however, 
these  borings  have  been  of  value  as  throwing  light  on 
the  geological  structure  of  the  region  where  they  were 
made.  Some  of  the  most  important  of  these  undertak- 
ings may  here  be  briefly  noticed. 

At  Louisville,  Kentucky,  a  boring  was  begun  in  1857, 
and  carried  to  a  depth  of  2,086  feet,  with  a  diameter  of 
three  inches.  The  water  obtained  rose,  when  tubed,  to 

1  These  wells  are  all  within  three  or  four  miles  from  the  City  Hall. 


62  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — MISSOURI. 

a  height  of  170  feet  above  the  surface,  and  the  flow 
amounted  to  330,000  gallons  per  day.  This  water  is, 
however,  not  fit  for  ordinary  use,  since  it  contains  915 
grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon,  consisting  mostly 
of  common  salt  and  sulphate  of  soda,  with  considerable 
sulphate  of  magnesia  and  sulphate  of  lime.  The  water 
is  said  to  have  valuable  medicinal  qualities,  and  to  re- 
semble that  of  the  celebrated  springs  of  Kissingen.1 

At  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  a  boring  was  carried  to  the 
depth  of  3,843.5  feet,  on  the  grounds  of  the  County  In- 
sane Asylum.  This  well  furnished  water  more  or  less 
saline  all  the  way  down.  Below  3,545  feet  it  contained 
from  seven  to  eight  per  cent  of  salt.  This  boring  passed 
entirely  through  all  the  sedimentary  formations,  termi- 
nating in  the  granite.  The  supply  of  water  which  it 
furnishes  appears  to  be  but  small,  and  no  use  has  been 
made  of  it.  Another  boring  was  made  at  Belcher's  su- 
gar refinery,  and  carried  to  a  depth  of  2,176  feet.  At 
1,231  feet  the  water  contained  three  per  cent  of  salt. 
There  are  no  details  available  as  to  its  quantity  fur- 
nished, or  whether  it  rose  to  the  surface.  No  practical 
use  has  been  made  of  this  water.2 

1  See  J.  Lawrence  Smith,  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  (2), 
Vol.  XXVII.  pp.  174-178,  where  it  is  stated  that  "the  top  of  the  well  is 
now  [1859]  closed,  and  the  water  conducted  about  thirty  feet  to  a  basin 
with  a  large  jet  d'eau  on  the  centre,  from  which  there  is  a  central  jet  of 
water  forty  feet  in  height,  with  a  large  water-pipe,  from  which  the  water 
passes  in  the  form  of  a  sheaf.    When  the  whole  force  of  the  water  is  al- 
lowed to  expend  itself  on  the  central  jet,  it  is  projected  to  a  height  of  from 
ninety  to  a  hundred  feet,  settling  down  to  a  steady  flow  of  a  stream  sixty 
feet  high."     The  bore-hole  is  five  inches  in  diameter  as  far  down  as 
seventy-six  feet,  from  that  point  to  the  bottom  of  the  well  three  inches. 

2  See  G.  C.  Swallow,  in  "  First  and  Second  Annual  Reports  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Missouri "  (1855),  p.  131.    Also,  G.  C.  Broadhead,  in 
"  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Missouri,  including  the  Field  work 
of  1873-1874,"  pp.  32-34. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS— OHIO.  63 

At  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  the  grounds  of  the  State 
House,  a  well  was  bored  between  1857  and  1860,  to 
the  depth  of  2,775  feet.  The  water  continued  saline 
all  the  way  down,  and  no  use  appears  to  have  been 
made  of  it,  nor  are  there  any  statements  in  the  reports  of 
the  State  Geological  Survey  as  to  its  quantity.  This  bor- 
ing passed  through  the  whole  thickness  of  the  Devonian 
and  Upper  Silurian,  and  terminated  in  the  Calciferous 
Sandrock  underlying  the  Trenton  limestone.1  A  deep 
well  was  bored  in  Eaton,  Preble  County,  Ohio,  some 
years  ago,  and  was  carried  to  a  depth  of  1,370  feet. 
Others  have  been  bored  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  near  Cin- 
cinnati, and  carried  down  to  a  depth  sufficient  to  reach 
the  bottom  of  the  Trenton  limestone  ;  these  wells  were 
sunk  in  search  of  petroleum,  but  without  success,  nor  is 
there  any  record  of  water  having  been  obtained  from 
them. 

The  fact  that  the  Trenton  limestone  in  the  northern 
part  of  Ohio  contained  a  large  amount  of  both  petroleum 
and  natural  gas,  was  not  revealed  until  after  the  borings 
mentioned  above  had  been  executed.  The  occurrence 
of  natural  gas  at  and  near  Findlay,  Hancock  County, 
has  been  known  since  that  region  was  first  settled 
(about  1836) ;  but  its  presence  in  large  quantity  was 
first  made  known  in  November,  1884,  and  immediately 
after  that  petroleum  was  discovered  in  the  same  forma- 
tion (the  Trenton  limestone),  since  which  time  this  re- 
gion has  become  of  great  economical  importance.2 

1  See  Edward  Orton,  in  "  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Ohio," 
Vol.  VI.,  Economic  Geology  (1888),  pp.  106-108. 

2  All  through  this  part  of  Ohio  there  has  been,  since  these  discoveries 
at  Findlay  were  made,  immense  activity  displayed  in  drilling  wells  for  oil 
and  gas.    The  following  quotation  from  the  above-cited  volume  of  the 


64  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — INDIANA. 

In  Indiana  there  have  been  numerous  borings  made 
for  water,  some  of  which  are  in  the  drift,  while  others 
are  much  deeper ;  but  they  are  all  designated  in  the 
Reports  of  the  State  Geological  Survey  as  "Artesian." 
As  examples  of  the  comparatively  shallow  wells  may  be 
mentioned  numerous  wells  in  Rush  County,  most  of 
them  not  much  exceeding  fifty  feet,  and  the  deepest 
being  106  feet.  Of  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the 
water  supplied  by  these  wells  nothing  definite  can  be 
stated,  except  that  in  one  locality  —  at  the  west  end 
of  Rushville  —  the  average  depth  being  from  twenty 
to  twenty-three  feet,  the  water  is  designated  as  being 
"Artesian  chalybeate."1  These  are  evidently  simple 
shallow  wells.  The  City  of  Marion,  Grant  County,  is 
supplied  with  water  from  a  boring  sixty-eight  feet 
deep.  This  well  may  properly  be  called  Artesian, 
since  the  water  overflows  at  the  top  of  the  bore-hole. 
The  yield  is  not  definitely  stated,  but  the  well  is  said 
to  furnish  "  an  abundance  of  good  pure  water." 2  The 
analysis  of  this  water  showed  that  it  contained  twenty- 
eight  grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon,  mostly  car- 
bonate of  lime. 

Geological  Reports  may  be  appended  as  an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  this 
statement :  "  The  discovery  of  gas  and  oil  at  Findlay  has  made  a  great 
impression  on  the  western  half  of  Ohio  not  only,  but  on  all  adjacent 
States  as  well.  In  fact,  no  geological  discovery  ever  made  in  this  coun- 
try, unless  the  original  discovery  of  petroleum  in  western  Pennsylvania 
shall  be  excepted,  has  exerted  so  widespread  and  powerful  an  influence  on 
half  of  the  United  States,  or  at  least  on  the  northern  Mississippi  Valley, 
as  the  discovery  of  Findlay  gas.  Every  county  in  the  western  half  of 
Ohio,  without  exception,  has  already  drilled  one  or  more  wells  to  the 
Trenton  limestone,  or  at  least 'made  a  determined  effort  to  reach  the  new 
source  of  light  and  heat."  Loc.  cit.,  p.  117. 

1  See  J.  Collett,  in  "  Thirteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of 
Geology  and  Natural  History,"  Indianapolis,  1884,  pp.  100-103. 

2  Loc.  cit.,  p.  140. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — ILLINOIS.  65 

All  the  deeper  wells  of  Indiana  appear  to  furnish  a 
strongly  saline  water ;  for  instance,  an  Artesian  well  at 
Reelsville,  1,240  feet  deep,  "  from  which  there  resulted 
a  strong  flow  of  white  sulphur  water,  highly  charged 
with  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas.  ...  It  was  considered 
a  specific  in  diseases  of  the  liver  and  kidneys."1  A  well 
bored  at  Corydon,  in  1871,  at  a  depth  of  1,200  feet 
yielded  brine  strong  enough  to  make  one  and  a  quarter 
pounds  of  salt  per  gallon.  The  yield  of  this  well  seems 
to  have  been  very  small.2  Another  well,  half  a  mile  east 
of  Corydon,  designated  as  the  "  White  Sulphur  Well," 
of  which  the  depth  is  not  given,  yielded  a  water  con- 
taining 450.88  grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon. 
This  well  is,  or  has  been,  used  as  a  mineral  spring, 
and  "  cures  almost  magical  in  their  results  are  vouched 
for."  At  Lodi,  Fountain  County,  a  boring  1,155  feet 
deep  yielded  a  copious  supply  of  water  "  discharged 
with  great  force,"  and  containing  673.937  grains  of 
solid  matter  to  the  gallon.  This  water  is  said  to  be 
nearly  identical  with  that  of  the  White  Sulphur  Springs 
of  Virginia.3 

In  Illinois  the  results  of  deep  boring  for  Artesian 
water  do  not  seem  to  have  been  favorable,  unless  it  be 
in  the  city  of  Chicago.  Here  there  are  wells  which 
appear  to  furnish  some  water,  although  no  definite  infor- 
mation has  been  obtained  with  regard  to  their  yield ; 

1  Department  of  Statistics  and  Geology,  Second  Annual  Report,  In- 
dianapolis, 1880,  p.  405. 

2  E.  T.  Cox,  in  « Eighth,  Ninth,  and  Tenth  Annual  Reports  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Indiana,"  Indianapolis,  1879,  p.  353. 

8  See  J.  Collett,  in  "  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of 
Geology  and  Natural  History,"  Indianapolis,  1881,  p.  114.  The  flow  of 
this  well  at  a  depth  of  1,051  feet  is  said  to  have  been  1,500  barrels  per 
day ;  the  solid  matter  is  stated  to  be  about  five  sevenths  common  salt. 

5 


66  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — ILLINOIS. 

neither  can  anything  positive  be  stated  about  the  qual- 
ity of  the  water.  The  borings  at  Chicago  are  said  by 
the  State  Geologist  to  range  from  700  to  1,100  feet  in 
depth,  and  "  to  furnish  an  abundant  supply  of  water 
for  the  local  needs  which  caused  them  to  be  bored."  1 
The  most  important  of  these  wells  are  said  to  be  at  the 
Union  Stock  Yards,  where  the  strata  are  described  as 
being  most  probably  horizontal,  or  nearly  so.2 

The  following  items  in  regard  to  deep  borings  in  Illi- 
nois are  extracted  from  the  latest  published  volume  of 
the  State  Geological  Survey.8  At  Riverton,  seven  miles 
east  of  Springfield,  a  boring  was  carried  to  the  depth  of 
655  feet.  At  Olney,  in  the  south  part  of  the  State,  a 
boring  for  Artesian  water  was  carried  to  the  depth  of 
2,000  feet  without  success.  At  Canton,  in  Fulton 
County,  a  boring  was  begun  above  the  horizon  of  Coal 
No.  5,  and  extended  into  the  Silurian  to  a  depth  of  358 
feet.  At  Streator,  in  La  Salle  County,  an  Artesian  bor- 
ing was  carried  to  a  depth  of  2,496  feet,  the  last  1,358 
feet  being  in  the  Potsdam  sandstone.  Both  the  St.  Peters 

1  See  «  Geological  Survey  of  Illinois,"  Vol.  III.  (1868),  pp.  244  and 
256.     There  are  but  few  particulars  given  in  the  State  Geological  reports 
in  regard  to  either  the  quantity  or  the  quality  of  the  water  obtained  in 
any  of  the  Artesian  borings  in  Illinois. 

2  A  pamphlet  entitled  "  History  of  the  Great  Chicago  Artesian  Well,  a 
Demonstration  of  the  Truth  of  the  Spiritual  Philosophy,  with  an  Essay  on 
the  Origin  and  Uses  of  Petroleum,"  by  George  A.  Shufeldt,  Jr.,  has  been 
published  at  that  place,  and  has  gone  through  several  editions  (1865, 1867). 
The  statements  here  made  are  astounding.   The  water  is  said  to  flow  at  the 
rate  of  about  600,000  gallons  per  day  from  a  depth  of  711  feet,  and  to  be 
"  as  clear  as  crystal  and  as  pure  as  the  diamond,  .  .  .  and  better  adapted 
for  drinking  purposes  than  any  other  water  known."     So  many  of  the 
statements  made  in  this  pamphlet  can  easily  be  proved  to  have  no  basis 
of  truth,  that  it  is  not  possible  to  accept  any  part  of  it  as  authority  in 
regard  to  the  Artesian  water  of  Chicago. 

8  See  «  Geological  Survey  of  Illinois,"  Vol.  VII.  (May,  1883),  pp.  5, 7, 
49,  50. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  —  WISCONSIN.  67 

sandstone  and  the  white  sandstone  of  the  Calciferous 
group  were  found  to  be  water-bearing  in  this  well,  the 
water  from  the  St.  Peters  coming  to  within  forty  feet 
of  the  surface,  and  that  from  the  Calciferous  to  within 
about  thirty-four  feet :  this  latter  water  was  reported 
as  being  sweet,  and  apparently  free  from  deleterious 
mineral  substances,  while  that  from  the  Potsdam  was 
brackish  and  unfit  for  common  use,  but  it  rose  in  a  tube 
to  the  height  of  forty-five  feet  above  the  surface.  At 
Marseilles,  a  depth  of  2,189  feet  was  attained,  but  the 
flow  of  water,  which  rose  to  the  surface,  was  only  one 
and  a  half  barrels  per  hour.  The  quality  of  the  water 
is  not  stated. 

The  mineral  springs  and  Artesian  wells  of  Wisconsin 
are  of  much  more  importance  than  those  of  the  adja- 
cent more  Southern  States,  which  have  been  briefly 
noticed  on  the  preceding  pages,  and  they  received 
considerable  attention  during  the  progress  of  the  sur- 
vey carried  on  under  the  direction  of  Professor  Cham- 
berlin  during  the  years  1873  to  1879.1  Some  of  the 
more  important  conclusions  reached  by  this  Survey  may 
here  be  briefly  stated. 

The  "areas  of  favorable  probabilities"  for  Artesian 
wells  in  Wisconsin  are  designated  as  follows  :  I.  A 
belt  extending  along  the  entire  border  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan, at  an  elevation  not  much  above  that  of  the  lake. 

1  See  Volume  I.  (1883)  of  the  reports  of  that  Survey,  pp.  689-701,  in 
which  the  subject  of  Artesian  wells  in  general  is  discussed  ;  Volume  II. 
(1877),  pp.  141-170,  containing  remarks  on  water  supply,  an  enumera- 
tion of  the  various  geological  horizons  in  which  springs  occur  and  Arte- 
sian wells  either  have  been  or  may  be  successfully  bored,  with  chemical 
analyses  of  the  water  of  several  noteworthy  springs  and  Artesian  wells ; 
Volume  IV.  (1882),  pp.  57-63,  containing  descriptions,  with  analyses  of 
the  water,  of  various  Artesian  wells  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 


68  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — WISCONSIN". 

II.  In  the  Green  Bay  Valley,  from  Fond  du  Lac  north- 
ward. III.  In  the  valley  of  Kock  River.  IV.  Along 
the  Mississippi  River.  V.  Along  the  shore  of  Lake 
Superior. 

Farther  on  in  the  series  of  volumes  of  the  Geological 
Survey  reports,1  the  numerous  Artesian  wells  of  Wiscon- 
sin are  classified  with  reference  to  the  formations  from 
which  they  derive  their  flow,  as  follows  :  I.  Those  that 
flow  entirely  from  the  drift,  clay  layers  forming  the  up- 
per and  lower  confining  strata,  and  sand  or  gravel  the 
water-bearing  seam.  II.  Those  that  derive  their  flow 
from  the  junction  of  the  drift  with  the  indurated  rocks 
below.  III.  Those  that  originate  in  the  Niagara  lime- 
stone. IV.  Those  that  arise  from  the  Galena  and 
Trenton  limestones.  V.  Those  coming  from  the  St. 
Peters  sandstone.  VI.  Those  originating  in  the  older 
crystalline  rocks. 

In  the  first  group,  or  those  coming  from  the  drift, 
the  following  wells  are  among  those  more  particularly 
noticed  :  —  Those  of  Taycheedah,  from  sixty  to  seventy 
feet  deep,  and  not  reaching  the  bed-rock  ;  the  water  of 
some  of  these  is  said  to  be  strongly  impregnated  with 
sulphuretted  hydrogen.  At  Calumet,  on  the  shore  of 
Lake  Winnebago,  two  fine  wells  are  mentioned,  about 
ninety  feet  deep,  "  giving  a  copious  flow  of  clear,  cold, 
sparkling  water,  impregnated  with  considerable  iron, 
and  some  sulphuretted  hydrogen."  At  Whitewater, 
various  "  flowing  wells,"  owing  their  origin  to  the  fact 
that  a  bed  of  lacustrine  clay  rests  upon  the  flank  of 
drift  hills  to  the  southeast,  admirably  adapted  to  serve 
as  collecting  areas.  One  of  these  wells,  fifty-two  feet 

i  Volume  II.  pp.  150,  151. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — WISCONSIN.  69 

deep,  in  a  stiff  blue  clay,  is  described  as  having  a  copi- 
ous flow,  "the  water  being  charged  with  iron  and 
sulphuretted  hydrogen."  At  Oshkosh  there  is  a  con- 
siderable number  of  shallow  wells,  varying  from  fifty 
to  150  feet  in  depth,  some  of  which  derive  their  flow 
from  within  the  drift,  while  others  come  from  the  junc- 
tion of  the  detrital  formation  with  the  rock  in  place 
beneath.  Some  of  the  flowing  wells  at  Fond  du  Lac 
also  have  an  origin  similar  to  that  of  the  shallow  wells 
at  Oshkosh.  There  are  also  numerous  wells  at  Rush- 
ford,  Aurora,  Poysippi,  and  vicinity,  included  in  what 
is  designated  as  the  "  Poygan  Lake  system,"  which  all 
belong  to  a  common  depression  filled  by  a  continuous 
lacustrine  deposit,  and  are  essentially  alike  in  nature 
and  origin.  They  all  originate  in  the  drift,  and  owe 
their  existence  to  the  alternate  porous  and  impervious 
character  of  the  red  clay  and  associated  beach  deposits. 
Their  flow  is  said  to  be  in  some  cases  very  copious, 
and  the  water  excellent,  rather  soft,  but  occasionally 
impregnated  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  no  very  sharp  line  of  distinction  can  be 
drawn  between  the  wells  the  water  of  which  is  de- 
rived from  the  drift  itself,  and  those  drawing  their 
supply  from  the  junction  of  the  detrital  formation 
with  the  bed-rock.  The  water  of  the  various  Fond  du 
Lac,  Oshkosh,  and  Oakfield  wells  comes  from  both  these 
horizons. 

Of  wells  bored  in  the  Niagara  limestone  and  obtain- 
ing their  yield  of  water  from  that  formation,  those  of 
Manitowoc  are  cited.  The  drift  here  appears  to  be 
about  sixty  feet  deep,  and  the  borings  at  several  of  the 
wells  penetrated  the  rock  to  the  depth  of  ninety  feet. 


70  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — WISCONSIN. 

An  analysis  of  the  water  of  one  of  the  wells  in  this 
geological  position  shows  it  to  contain  a  large  amount 
of  saline  matter  (192.7  grains  to  the  gallon),  the  sul- 
phates of  lime,  soda,  and  magnesia  predominating. 

Some  of  the  wells  at  Oshkosh  and  Fond  du  Lac,  and 
most  of  those  at  Watertown,  derive  their  water  from 
the  fourth  horizon  mentioned  above  —  the  Galena  and 
Trenton  limestones  ;  but  in  general  this  source  of  sup- 
ply seems  to  be  of  comparatively  little  importance,  by 
far  the  larger  part  of  the  deep-seated  wells  —  of  Eastern 
Wisconsin,  at  least  —  receiving  their  water  from  the  St. 
Peters  sandstone.  This  rock  is  porous,  and  also  much 
fissured  in  various  directions,  so  that  water  easily  pene- 
trates it,  while  the  overlying  Trenton  limestone  forms 
an  effective  impermeable  cover.  From  this  source 
comes  the  water  of  the  deeper  wells  at  Watertown, 
some  of  those  at  Fond  du  Lac,  the  Sheboygan  well,  and 
others  at  Milwaukee,  Racine,  and  Western  Union  Junc- 
tion. The  well  at  Sheboygan  is  1,475  feet  deep ;  the 
discharge  is  225  gallons  per  minute ;  the  water  contains 
589.25  grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon,  consisting 
chiefly  of  common  salt  and  sulphate  of  lime.  The 
pressure  at  the  surface  is  sufficient  to  raise  the  water 
104  feet.  The  Milwaukee  well  is  1,048  feet  deep ;  the 
pressure  is  sufficient  to  fill  a  four-inch  pipe  at  sixty  feet 
above  the  surface.  Nothing  is  stated  in  regard  to  the 
quality  of  the  water  of  this  well.  Another  well,  in  the 
suburbs  of  Milwaukee,  is  1,200  feet  deep,  and  delivers 
300  gallons  of  water  per  minute  ;  its  flow  may  be  car- 
ried to  a  height  of  more  than  fifty  feet  above  the  sur- 
face. The  water  of  this  well  contains  42.34  grains  of 
solid  matter  to  the  gallon,  consisting  mostly  of  the  sul- 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  —  WISCONSIN.  71 

phates  of  lime  and  soda,  and  the  bicarbonate  of  mag- 
nesia. The  Racine  well  is  1,240  feet  deep ;  at  888  feet 
in  depth  the  St.  Peters  sandstone  was  struck,  which  is 
there  forty-eight  feet  thick.  Beneath  this  is  100  feet  of 
the  Lower  Magnesian  Limestone,  underlain  by  a  consid- 
erable thickness  of  the  Potsdam  sandstone.  When  the 
St.  Peters  sandstone  was  reached  a  flow  of  water  was 
secured,  which  was  increased  in  volume  on  penetrating 
—  to  the  depth  of  204  feet  —  the  Potsdam  group.  The 
water  rose  in  a  tube  sixty-five  feet  above  the  surface  : 
regarding  its  quality  nothing  is  stated.  The  well  at  the 
Western  Union  Junction  was  also  continued  down  into 
the  Potsdam  sandstone  for  a  distance  of  157  feet,  the 
total  depth  reached  being  1,263  feet.  There  are  no 
details  given  in  regard  to  the  volume  or  quality  of  the 
water  obtained. 

In  that  part  of  the  Wisconsin  Survey  reports  which 
is  devoted  to  the  "  Geology  of  the  Mississippi  Region 
North  of  the  Wisconsin  River,"  l  a  brief  notice  is  given 
of  the  mineral  springs  and  wells  existing  at  various 
points  within  the  district  described.  At  Sparta  there 
are  said  to  be  twelve  Artesian  wells  within  a  distance 
of  two  miles  from  the  central  part  of  the  city.  Their 
depth  is  uniformly  about  300  feet,  and  the  water  rises 
from  six  to  ten  feet  above  the  surface.  "  It  is  claimed 
that  these  mineral  waters  will  cure  a  large  and  varied 
list  of  diseases  ;  but  of  this  we  have  no  personal  knowl- 
edge." 2  The  source  of  the  water  of  these  wells  is  be- 

1  See  "Geology  of  Wisconsin,  Survey  of   1873-1879,"  Volume  IV. 
(1882),  pp.  57-62. 

2  Loc.  cit.,  p.  57.     An  analysis  of  the  water  from  one  of  these  wells 
shows  that  more  than  one  half  of  the  solid  matter  which  it  contains  is 
carbonate  of  iron.     Too  much  confidence  should  not  be  placed  in  the  cor- 


72  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — WISCONSIN. 

lieved  to  be  from  near  the  junction  of  the  Potsdam  and 
Archaean  (Azoic).  The  Artesian  well  of  La  Crosse  is 
said  to  be  573  feet  deep,  but  no  details  of  its  yield  are 
given.  The  well  of  Prairie  du  Chien  is  959  feet  deep, 
and  its  water  rises  in  the  tubing  to  the  height  of  sixty 
feet  above  the  surface:  its  discharge  is  869,916  gallons 
per  day.  The  water  is  said  to  be  clear  and  sparkling, 
but  "  a  little  brackish  to  the  taste."  The  La  Crosse 
deep  well  obtains  its  water  from  the  granite,  which, 
however,  it  penetrates  to  the  depth  of  thirty-six  feet 
only  ;  that  of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  well  seems  to  come 
chiefly  from  various  strata  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
Potsdam  sandstone. 

The  results  of  the  chemical  analyses  of  the  Wisconsin 
Artesian  waters  show  that  these  are,  almost  without  ex- 
ception, hard.  Few  of  these  waters,  however,  seem  to 
have  been  carefully  and  accurately  analyzed.  Besides 
the  analyses  mentioned  in  the  preceding  pages,  the  fol- 
lowing are  cited  in  a  tabular  statement  of  analyses  of 
the  waters  of  Wisconsin,  reprinted  in  1877  from  the  An- 
nual Report  for  1873 r1  Artesian  well,  Madison,  21.12 
grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon ;  Wild's  Artesian 
well,  Fond  du  Lac,  20.84  grains ;  Artesian  well,  Court 
House  Square,  Sparta,  9.05  grains.  This  last  is  the 
only  water  cited  in  the  table  of  analyses  of  twenty- 
three  specimens  from  the  springs,  wells,  rivers,  and 
lakes  of  Wisconsin,  which  shows  less  than  twenty 
grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon,  with  the  exception 
of  that  from  Milwaukee  River  (17.02  grains)  and  that 

rectness  of  this  piece  of  chemical  work,  the  results  of  which  are  carried 
to  the  fifth  place  of  decimals. 

i  See  "  Geology  of  Wisconsin,  Survey  of  1873-1877,"  Vol.  III.  pp.  31,  32. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — IOWA.  73 

from  Lake  Michigan  (8.46  grains).  It  seems  not  to 
be  possible  to  make  any  positive  general  statement 
connecting  the  quality  of  the  waters  of  Wisconsin  with 
the  geological  horizon  from  which  they  are  obtained  ; 
the  evidence  appears,  however,  to  favor  the  idea  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  best  water  comes  from  the  shallower 
wells :  that  of  some  of  the  very  deep  ones  is  certainly 
entirely  unsatisfactory. 

The  conditions  of  water-supply  in  Iowa  are  briefly 
discussed  in  the  State  Geological  Report.1  The  drain- 
age system  of  this  State  is  such  that  the  streams 
are  numerous  and  pretty  uniformly  distributed,  while 
springs  are  frequent  in  the  valleys.  Water  is  almost 
always  obtained  from  the  drift  which  covers  so  large  a 
part  of  Iowa  by  sinking  not  more  than  a  few  feet,  so 
that  deep  wells  do  not  seem  to  be  much  needed.  All 
the  water  of  this  State  is,  however,  hard,  so  that 
rain-water  collected  in  cisterns  is  commonly  used  for 
household  purposes.  The  rainfall  in  this  region  is 
amply  sufficient  to  make  it  possible  to  secure  water 
enough  for  ordinary  domestic  use,  away  from  the  large 
cities,  by  using  sufficient  care  in  the  construction  of 
proper  cisterns.2  The  scarcity  of  water  at  certain  sea- 
sons of  the  year,  and  the  occasional  recurrence  of  espe- 
cially severe  periods  of  drought,  however,  have  led  to 
numerous  attempts  to  secure  a  supply  more  satisfactory 
in  quality  or  quantity  by  means  of  Artesian  wells.  Up 

1  See  C.  A.  White,  in  "Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  the  State 
of  Iowa,"  Vol.  II.  (1870),  Des  Moines,  pp.  331-334  and  354-357. 

2  The  annual  rainfall  of  the  State  of  Iowa,  as  determined  by  the 
various  series  of  observations  collected  by  the  Iowa  State  Weather  and 
Crop  Service,  is  about  thirty-five  inches.    Monthly  Review  of  the  Iowa 
Weather  and  Crop  Service,  Vol.  III.  No.  3  (1892). 


74  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — IOWA. 

to  the  time  of  the  publication  of  Professor  White's  re- 
port, few  of  these  undertakings  seem  to  have  been  even 
moderately  successful.  Such  deep  borings  as  were 
begun  primarily  with  the  expectation  of  discovering 
petroleum  were  entirely  unsuccessful,  while  those  made 
especially  for  water  were  in  most  cases  failures,  because 
that  which  was  obtained  was  too  impure  to  be  used  in 
any  way,  unless  possibly  for  medicinal  purposes. 

In  later  years,  in  spite  of  these  difficulties,  increased 
attention  has  been  paid  to  Artesian  wells  in  this  State, 
as  is  shown  by  the  appearance  in  various  scientific  peri- 
odicals of  articles  devoted  to  this  subject.1  Professor 
Call  has  recently  published  a  tabular  statement  giving 
certain  facts  in  regard  to  eighty-six  Artesian  wells  in 
Iowa.2  Of  these  wells  about  forty  are  described  as  end- 
ing in  the  "glacial  drift,"  eight  in  the  Carboniferous, 
four  or  five  in  the  St.  Peters  sandstone,  and  two  in  the 
"  Silurian  ";  in  regard  to  all  the  others  no  satisfactory 
information  is  given  as  to  the  source  from  which  the 
water  is  derived.  In  fourteen  cases  it  is  said  to  be 
"soft";  in  forty-five  to  be  "hard";  further  than  this 
there  is  nothing  said  as  to  the  character  of  the  water. 
The  wells  ending  in  the  St.  Peters  sandstone  are  from 

1  See  R.  Ellsworth  Call,  in  "Proceedings  of  the  Iowa  Academy  of 
Sciences  for  1890,  1891,"  Vol.  I.  Part  2,  pp.  57-63  ;    also,  by  the  same 
author,  various  articles  in  the  "  Monthly  Review  of  the  Iowa  Weather  and 
Crop  Service,"  Vol.  III.  Nos.  for  February  and  March,  1892.     The  main 
grounds  on  which  Artesian  waters  are  sought  in  Iowa  are  stated  by  Pro- 
fessor Call  to  be,  "  first,  the  convenience  of  such  flows  for  farm  and  urban 
use,  and,  second,  the  supposed  purity  of  such  waters." 

2  The  details  of  this  statement  are  vague  and  unsatisfactory.     No 
analyses  of   the  water  are  furnished,  and  no  clue  to  its  character  is 
afforded  other  than  that  indicated  above.     Only  in  regard  to  about 
half  the  wells   noticed  is  any  information    given   as  to  the  amount 
of  flow. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — IOWA.  75 

676  to  1,400  feet  deep;  the  two  in  the  "Silurian,"1 
1,640  and  2,000  feet.  Throughout  the  region  where 
large  "glacial  wells"  occur,  water  is  usually  found  at 
depths  varying  from  twenty-five  to  170  or  180  feet. 
The  southwestern  part  of  Hancock  County,  along  the 
smaller  tributaries  of  Boone  River,  is  mentioned  as  be- 
ing an  "  Artesian  hydrographic  basin."  Another  area 
of  glacial  wells  is  that  lying  within  the  drainage  of 
Raccoon  River,  the  Des  Moines  River  dividing  this  from 
the  Boone  River  area,  the  latter  being  described  as  fur- 
nishing by  far  the  greater  number  of  wells,  as  also  the 
stronger  and  more  permanent  flows  of  water.  The 
greatest  reported  flow  of  any  well  in  the  Boone  River 
area  is  said  to  be  3,000  gallons  per  hour ;  a  few  hun- 
dred gallons  per  hour  is  the  maximum  in  the  Raccoon 
Valley.  These  areas  of  glacial  wells  are  said  to  lie 
within  the  terminal  moraine,  while  that  of  Belle  Plain 
is  beyond  it,  some  seventy-five  miles  to  the  southeast. 
Within  this  area,  in  Benton,  Tama,  Poweshiek,  and 
Iowa  counties,  there  are  said  to  be  sixty-three  flowing 
wells,  and  others  in  which  the  water  does  not  rise  to 
the  surface.  The  depth  of  the  detrital  material  in 
this  basin  is  indeed  most  remarkable.  A  well,  named 
"Jumbo,"  was  bored  here,  and  water  struck  at  the 
depth  of  193  feet,  the  lower  172  feet  being  "blue  clay, 
with  layers  or  pockets  of  sand  or  gravel."  The  condi- 
tion of  this  well  at  the  present  time  is  not  stated ;  but 
it  is  said  of  it  that,  during  its  period  of  greatest  flow, 
"  8,267,040  gallons  in  twenty-four  hours  came  from  this 

i  By  "  Silurian  "  appears  here  to  be  meant  some  formation  older  than 
the  St.  Peters  sandstone  :  in  one  instance  "  Magnesian  limestone  of  Silu- 
rian age  "  is  specified ;  in  the  other,  simply  "  Silurian  rock." 


76  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — IOWA. 

monster  well."  The  entire  thickness  of  the  interstrati- 
fied  clay  and  sand  at  this  point  is  not  known ;  water 
was  found  in  a  stratum  of  gravel  and  sand  at  a  depth 
of  209  feet,  and  this  was  bored  into  for  a  distance 
of  twenty-five  feet,  without  passing  through  it.  The 
water  gave  on  analysis  133.68  grains  of  solid  matter 
per  gallon,  about  three  fifths  of  this  being  sulphate  of 
lime  and  one  fifth  chloride  of  magnesium.  The  great 
depth  to  which  the  so  called  "  glacial  deposits "  in 
the  vicinity  of  Belle  Plain  extend  is  thought  to  in- 
dicate the  existence  of  an  "  extensive  subterranean 
hydrographic  basin,  or  the  presence  of  an  immense 
ancient  river  valley,  now  entirely  filled  and  obliter- 
ated." Of  the  "glacial  wells"  in  general,  it  is  said 
that  "they  are  all  relatively  shallow,  the  catchment 
basin  which  feeds  them  relatively  small,  and  their 
'life,'  which  is  at  best  precarious,  sustains  a  definite 
relationship  to  the  mean  annual  precipitation  of  the 
region." 

Besides  the  shallow  or  glacial  Artesian  wells  of  Iowa, 
of  which  the  above  brief  notice  has  been  given,  there 
are  numerous  deep  ones.  Those  which  lie  along  the 
Mississippi  River  all,  or  nearly  all,  end  in  the  St.  Pe- 
ters sandstone  ;  and  this  formation  is  said  to  be  the 
source  of  the  water  of  most  of  the  deep  wells  of  the 
State.  This  rock  underlies,  at  depths  varying  from 
1,000  to  1,200  feet,  that  part  of  Iowa  which  is  north 
and  east  of  a  line  drawn  from  Keokuk  to  Sioux  City. 
The  conditions  in  the  northwestern  and  southwestern 
portions  of  the  State  seem  to  be  unfavorable  for  pro- 
curing Artesian  water. 

So  far  as  can  be  determined  from  the  small  number 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — IOWA.  77 

of  analyses  of  Iowa  Artesian  water  available,  the  ear- 
lier statements  of  Professor  White  in  regard  to  its  very 
unsatisfactory  character  seems  to  be  upheld.  Professor 
Call  remarks  that  "  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  and  it  is 
quite  doubtful  if  these  are  correctly  reported,  the  water 
of  all  glacial  wells  belongs  to  the  class  called  hard 
water ;  the  water  of  all  the  wells  that  end  in  the  Car- 
boniferous rocks  or  in  the  St.  Peters  sandstone  is  soft." 
The  analyses  furnished  do  not,  however,  substantiate 
the  correctness  of  this  statement.  Thus  the  water  of 
an  Artesian  well  in  the  city  of  McGregor,  descending  to 
the  St.  Peters  sandstone,  contained  136.8  grains  of  solid 
matter  to  the  gallon,  mostly  common  salt  with  sulphate 
of  soda,  and  some  sulphate  and  carbonate  of  magnesia ; 
that  of  the  well  at  the  Asylum  near  Council  Bluffs,  1,100 
feet  deep,  was  shown  by  analyses  to  contain  89.433  grains 
of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon  ;  that  of  an  Artesian  well 
at  Des  Homes,  penetrating  the  Carboniferous  strata  to 
the  depth  of  380  feet,  181.37  grains  of  solid  matter  to 
the  gallon  ;  that  of  the  well  at  Boone,  the  boring  of 
which  ends  at  3,011  feet  in  a  white  sandstone,  86.48 
grains  to  the  gallon ;  that  of  the  water  of  an  Artesian 
well  at  West  Liberty,  1,968  feet  deep,  ending  in  the 
sandstone,  64.8  grains  to  the  gallon  ;  that  of  a  well  at 
Fort  Madison,  763  feet  deep,  and  probably  ending  in  the 
St.  Peters  sandstone,  115.13  grains  to  the  gallon.  In 
short,  it  does  not  appear  from  published  documents  that 
any  water  has  been  obtained  in  Iowa  by  Artesian  bor- 
ings suitable  for  use  either  for  household  purposes,  or  in 
the  boilers  of  steam-engines.  The  waters  of  some  wells 
in  this  State  are  said  to  be  "  strongly  magnetic,"  and 
have  been  extensively  advertised  as  possessing  high 


78  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — MINNESOTA. 

medicinal  value.  The  same  statement  has  been  made 
in  regard  to  many  other  wells,  springs,  and  Artesian 
waters  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  of  the  region  of 
the  Great  Lakes. 

As  in  the  adjacent  States  in  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
so  in  Minnesota,  attempts  have  been  made  to  pro- 
cure water  by  means  of  Artesian  wells.  It  would 
appear  from  the  various  reports  published  by  the 
Minnesota  Geological  Survey  that  water  can  be  ob- 
tained with  ease  over  a  large  part  of  this  State  by 
means  of  shallow  wells  in  the  drift.  In  some  of  the 
counties,  however,  the  superficial  detrital  material  con- 
tains a  considerable  proportion  of  calcareous  matter, 
so  that  the  water  from  these  wells  is  hard.  Some 
deep  wells  have  been  bored  in  the  hope  of  procuring  a 
better  supply,  but  these  attempts  appear  to  have  been 
only  partially  successful.  Thus  a  deep  well  at  Man- 
kato,  Blue  Earth  County,  sunk  to  the  depth  of  2,204 
feet,  "  furnished  no  Artesian  flow  of  water,  and  is  not 
used."1  Many  shallow  wells  in  the  same  county, 
sunk  to  but  slight  depths  in  the  drift,  furnish  Artesian 
water  in  considerable  quantity,  these  flowing  wells 
being  locally  denominated  "fountains."  More  than  a 
hundred  of  these  fountains  have  been  obtained  in  Blue 
Earth  County  upon  the  area  drained  by  the  head 
streams  of  Maple  River,  from  Sterling  Centre  fifteen 
miles  southeastward,  including  Sterling  and  Mapleton 
townships,  and  reaching  into  Faribault  County.  At 
Wells,  in  this  last-named  county,  occur  the  most  re- 
markable of  this  class  of  wells  which  have  been  discov- 

i  "Geological  and  Natural  History  Survey  of  Minnesota.  Final 
Report,"  Vol.  I.  (1884),  pp.  422,  452. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — MINNESOTA.  79 

ered  in  Minnesota.  These  wells  are  sunk  in  the  drift 
to  the  depth  of  from  110  to  120  feet,  the  water  rising 
in  them  to  the  height  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above 
its  surface.  About  twenty  of  these  wells  have  been 
sunk  within  a  radius  of  one  mile,  the  bore-holes  being 
in  most  cases  two  inches  in  diameter,  but  reduced  to 
half  an  inch  or  less  at  the  top.  The  water  thus  ob- 
tained is  said  to  be  of  excellent  quality,  but  somewhat 
chalybeate.  Other  Artesian  wells,  or  fountains,  are 
said  to  have  been  sunk  in  Faribault  County,  the  water 
coming  from  beds  of  gravel  and  sand  at  depths  of 
from  thirty  or  forty  to  nearly  a  hundred  feet.  Of 
these  fountains  it  is  stated  that  "All  these  Artesian 
wells,  as  also  the  common  wells  of  the  county,  .  .  . 
invariably  have  good  water  and  nearly  always  in  ample 
amount  within  twenty-five  or  fifty  feet  from  the  surface. 
It  is,  however,  hard  water,  holding  the  carbonates  of 
lime  and  magnesia  in  solution,  and  requires  cleansing 
with  ashes  or  otherwise  before  it  can  satisfactorily  be 
used  for  washing  with  soap."  1 

At  Red  Wing,  Goodhue  County,  two  Artesian  wells 
have  been  drilled,  one  at  the  station  of  the  Chicago, 
Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul  Railway,  the  other  about 
eighty  rods  from  this.  This  latter  well  is  260  feet 
deep,  the  first  160  feet  of  which  is  in  the  drift,  and 
the  remainder  in  the  sandstone.2  The  yield  of  this 
well  is  300  barrels  per  day,  the  water  rising  thirty  feet 

1  Loc.  cit.,  Vol.  II.  p.  471. 

2  This  sandstone  belongs  to  what  is  called  by  the  Minnesota  Geologi- 
cal Survey  the  "  St.  Croix  sandstone,"  —  one  of  the  many  names  applied 
to  the  formation  originally  named  "  Potsdam  sandstone  "  by  the  geolo- 
gists of  the  New  York  Survey,  and  from  which  it  differs  in  no  important 
respect,  either  lithologically  or  palaeontologically. 


80  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — MINNESOTA. 

above  the  surface.  The  well  at  the  railway  station  is 
450  feet  deep,  discharging  800  gallons  per  minute,  the 
water  rising  when  tubed  seventy-five  feet  above  the 
surface.  Nothing  is  said  of  the  quality  of  the  water 
of  this  well,  except  that  it  deposits  "  a  considerable 
irony  sediment,"  while  that  furnished  by  the  other 
well,  near  the  station,  is  described  as  being  "  soft  and 
pure."  A  similar  statement  is  made  in  regard  to  the 
water  of  another  Artesian  well,  a  few  miles  farther 
west,  which  is  355  feet  deep  and  also  terminates  in  the 
sandstone.  An  Artesian  well  at  the  hospital  in  Saint 
Peter,  Nicollet  County,  on  the  Minnesota  River,  is 
200  feet  deep,  the  water  rising  seven  feet  above  the 
surface :  nothing  is  said  as  to  its  quality  or  quantity. 

The  Artesian  wells  near  St.  Paul  appear  to  be  the 
most  successful  and  important  in  the  State.  There  are 
several  at  West  St.  Paul,  varying  in  depth  from  200 
to  275  feet,  the  water  in  which  rises  from  twenty  to 
thirty  feet  above  the  surface,  and  is  said  to  be  "  very 
soft,  pure,  and  wholesome":  it  comes  from  the  Potsdam 
sandstone.  There  are  also  deep  wells  at  St.  Paul,  one 
at  "  Elevator  13,"  850  feet  deep,  and  one  at  the  «  St. 
Paul  Harvester  Works,"  671  feet  deep ;  in  neither  of 
these  does  the  water  rise  to  the  surface.  It  is  sug- 
gested by  the  Geological  Survey  that  Artesian  water, 
which  is  already  used  for  fire  protection  on  the  west 
side  of  the  river,  could  be  had  at  St.  Paul  in  sufficient 
quantity  for  the  supply  of  the  entire  city  "  by  sinking 
several  large  wells  to  this  sandrock  [the  St.  Croix] 
and  by  the  construction  of  pumping-stations  and 


reservoirs." 1 


Loc.  cit.,  Vol.  II.  p.  364. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — MISSOURI.  81 

At  Mendota,  also  on  the  Mississippi  River,  a  few 
miles  southwest  of  St.  Paul,  there  is  a  well  857  feet 
deep,  the  water  of  which,  coining  from  the  Potsdam 
sandstone,  rises  a  few  feet  above  the  surface,  and  flows 
at  the  rate  of  300  gallons  per  minute.  Still  farther 
down  the  Mississippi,  at  Hastings,  Dakota  County, 
there  is  an  Artesian  well,  1,160  feet  deep,  in  the  Pots- 
dam sandstone,  the  water  from  which  will  rise  when 
tubed  fourteen  feet  above  the  surface,  flowing  at  the 
rate  of  about  a  hundred  gallons  per  minute. 

Recent  publications  of  two  of  the  Geological  Surveys 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  States,  Missouri  and  Arkan- 
sas, furnish  considerable  information  in  regard  to  the 
mineral  waters  obtained  from  springs  and  bored  wells 
in  those  States.1  The  mineral  springs  of  Missouri 
are  very  numerous,  and  many  of  them  are  believed 
to  possess  "  undoubted  medicinal  value."  They  are 
classed  by  Professor  Schweitzer  as  furnishing  muriatic, 
alkaline,  sulphatic,  chalybeate,  and  sulphur  waters. 
Under  the  heading,  "List  of  Mineral  Waters  of  the 
State,  examined,  sampled,  and  analyzed  by  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  during  the  Years  1890  to  1892,"  thirty- 
five  counties  are  cited  as  possessing  mineral  springs, 
eighty-three  distinct  springs,  wells,  or  Artesian  wells 
being  specified,  and  the  results  of  the  analyses  of  their 
waters  given.  Of  the  wells  designated  as  "  Artesian," 
which  are  six  in  number,  the  following  details  are 

1  See  "  Geological  Survey  of  Missouri,  A.  Winslow,  State  Geologist, 
Vol.  III.  (December,  1892),  containing  a  Report  on  the  Mineral  Waters 
of  Missouri  by  Paul  Schweitzer  and  A.  E.  Woodward,"  and  "Annual 
Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Arkansas  for  1891,  Vol.  I.,  The 
Mineral  Waters  of  Arkansas,  by  John  C.  Branner,  State  Geologist," 
Little  Rock,  1892. 

6 


82  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — MISSOURI. 

given  :  the  "  Clinton/'  in  Henry  County,  is  800  feet 
deep,  the  flow  400  gallons  per  minute,  and  the  water 
contains  106.24  grains  of  solid  matter  (mostly  com- 
mon salt)  to  the  gallon ;  the  "  Louisiana"  (at  the  town 
of  that  name  in  Pike  County,  on  the  Mississippi,  eighty 
miles  from  St.  Louis)  is  1,275  feet  deep,  the  flow  of 
water  "  abundant,"  and  its  contents  of  solid  matter 
545.71  grains  per  gallon,  nearly  four  fifths  of  which 
is  common  salt ;  the  "  Clinton  Artesian  Well,  No.  3," 
also  in  Henry  County,  913  feet  deep,  flowing  at  the 
rate  of  2,500  to  3,000  gallons  per  minute,  the  water 
being  classed  as  "  alkaline,"  and  containing  94.54 
grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon,  about  half  of 
which  is  common  salt,  and  the  rest  chiefly  the  car- 
bonates of  lime  and  magnesia  with  a  very  little 
(2.08  grains  to  the  gallon)  chloride  of  potassium;  the 
"Jordan,"  also  in  Henry  County  and  near  Clinton, 
depth  not  given,  water  said  to  be  a  weak  chalybeate, 
and  the  well  now  abandoned ;  the  "  Belcher,"  St.  Louis 
County,  already  noticed  on  a  preceding  page ; 1  the 
"Nevada,"  near  the  town  of  that  name  in  Yernon 
County,  800  feet  deep,  flowing  at  the  rate  of  10,000 

i  See  p.  62.  The  report  of  Professor  Schweitzer  having  been  received 
since  that  notice  of  the  Belcher  well  was  written,  the  following  addi- 
tional information  concerning  this  noted  well  may  here  be  added.  The 
water  contains  550.25  grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon,  of  which  401.57 
are  common  salt,  50.18  sulphate  of  lime,  47.49  chloride  of  calcium,  46.08 
chloride  of  magnesium,  3.06  bromide  of  magnesium,  0.87  chloride  of 
potassium,  the  remainder  silica  and  oxide  of  iron.  "  A  large  amount  of 
this  water  is  used  for  home  consumption  [apparently  for  medicinal 
puposes]  as  well  as  for  shipping,  its  use  being  free  to  any  one  who  may 
wish  to  take  it."  The  water  flows  from  a  l|-inch  pipe  at  the  rate  of 
about  fifty  gallons  per  hour ;  it  is  clear  and  sparkling,  with  a  perceptible 
odor  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas,  which  gives  rise  to  a  white  precipitate 
of  sulphur  on  the  stones  over  which  it  flows. 


WELLS  AND  SPRINGS  —  ARKANSAS.  83 

gallons  per  hour,  the  water  (classed  as  alkaline)  con- 
taining 76.01  grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon, 
nearly  half  of  which  is  common  salt,  and  the  remainder 
chiefly  carbonates  of  lime  and  magnesia,  together  with 
2.40  grains  of  carbonate  of  soda. 

The  distinction  between  Artesian  wells  and  springs 
is  not  very  closely  maintained  in  Professor  Schweitzer's 
report :  thus,  of  one  of  the  "  Kandolph  Springs,"  in 
the  county  of  that  name,  the  "  Sulphur  Spring  "  is  said 
to  be  "  a  free  flowing  four-inch  well,  969  feet  deep, 
bored  originally  .  .  .  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  pe- 
troleum. .  .  .  The  flow  is  at  the  rate  of  about  120 
gallons  per  hour.  Very  few  of  the  wells  or  springs 
mentioned  in  this  report  could  be  employed  for  any 
other  than  a  medicinal  purpose.  A  few  of  them  have, 
however,  been  used  in  former  years  for  making  salt, 
especially  the  so-called  "  Great  Salt  Springs  "  of  Saline 
County. 

In  the  "  Annual  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
Arkansas  for  1891,"  a  volume  is  devoted  to  the  min- 
eral waters  of  that  State.1  In  this  volume  a  consider- 
able number  of  analyses  of  the  water  of  various  springs 
and  rivers,  as  well  as  of  such  springs  as  are  more  prop- 
erly designated  as  "  mineral,"  are  given.  Arkansas  is 
a  well-watered  State,  the  rainfall  over  most  of  its  sur- 
face being  rather  in  excess  of  its  needs.  Irrigation  is, 
therefore,  not  a  question  of  practical  importance.2 

1  This  volume,  by  John  C.  Branner,  State  Geologist,  bears  the  date 
of  1892. 

2  Arkansas  is  famous  for  its  springs.    In  the  language  of  the  above 
cited  report,  "  hundreds  of  beautiful,  free-flowing  springs  gush  from  hill- 
sides and  valleys  in  all  parts  of  the  State.  .  .  .  Some  of  these  springs  are 
so  big  that  they  are  utilized  for  driving  mills  and  cotton  gins  and  other 


84  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — TEXAS. 

Texas  is  a  State  having  an  area  so  extensive  that 
the  climate  and  topographic  conditions  are  strikingly 
different  over  various  portions  of  its  surface.1  Along 
its  eastern  edge,  in  the  region  adjacent  to  Louisiana, 
the  rainfall  is  copious,  and  not  much  less  on  the  bor- 
ders of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  while  the  whole  of  the 
western  and  northwestern  part  of  the  State  lies  beyond 
the  line  separating  the  well-watered  area  from  that 
scantily  supplied  with  moisture.  It  was  on  the  Llano 
Estacado,  a  vast  plain  lying  between  the  Pecos  River 
and  the  Gulf  water-shed,  that  the  first  attempts 
by  the  government  to  procure  Artesian  water  in  the 
arid  region  of  the  United  States  were  made,  and 
without  success. 

In  the  coast  region  of  this  State  numerous  borings 
have  been  made  to  procure  water,  and,  according  to 
the  investigations  of  the  Geological  Survey,  the  result 
has  proved  that  "  flowing  wells  can  be  had  throughout 
the  coast  prairie  region,  from  the  Guadalupe  River  to 
the  Sabine,  at  depths  varying  from  sixty-four  feet  in 

machinery,  and  as  their  discharges  are  subject  to  little  or  no  fluctuations 
throughout  the  year,  they  are  free  from  the  dangers  of  freshets  and  the 
risks  of  drouths.  ...  At  Mammoth  Spring,  in  Fulton  County,  one  of  the 
finest  water  powers  in  the  country  is  furnished  by  an  enormous  clear 
water  spring."  The  so-called  "  mineral  springs  "  are,  in  some  cases  at 
least,  remarkable  for  their  purity.  Thus  the  waters  of  the  various  Eureka 
Springs,  in  Carroll  County,  around  which  a  town  of  several  thousand 
inhabitants  has  grown  up,  and  which  are  visited  by  people  from  all  parts 
of  the  United  States,  contain  only  from  five  to  seven  grains  of  mineral 
water  to  the  gallon,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  almost  equally  famous 
Elixir  Spring,  at  Elixir  Spring,  in  Boone  County.  These,  as  well  as  many 
others  in  Arkansas,  belong  to  the  class  of  "  indifferent  springs,"  or  those 
in  which  the  medicinal  value  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  the  composition 
of  the  water. 

1  Texas  has  an  area  of  262,290  square  miles.  It  is  five  and  a  half 
times  as  large  as  the  State  of  New  York. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — TEXAS.  85 

De  Witt  County  to  1,100  feet  at  Velasco,  in  Brazoria 
County,  and  that  the  water  as  a  rule  is  of  excellent 
quality  in  all  wells  distant  from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  or 
more  from  the  coast."  1  It  is,  furthermore,  stated  by 
the  Survey,  that,  outside  of  the  coast  prairie  region 
and  west  of  the  Guadalupe  River,  the  Artesian  water 
conditions  vary  so  greatly  and  continually,  through  the 
thinning  out  of  the  water-bearing  sands  or  their  entire 
absence  in  many  localities,  that  no  large  area  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  State  can,  at  present,  be  desig- 
nated as  an  Artesian  water-bearing  district. 

The  present  water-supply  for  the  city  of  Galveston  is 
derived  from  thirteen  Artesian  wells,  ranging  in  depth 
from  810  to  1,346  feet.2  The  water,  however,  contains 
so  large  an  amount  of  impurities,  chiefly  common  salt, 
"  that  it  is  unsuitable  for  either  domestic  or  manufac- 
turing purposes,  although  used  to  some  extent  for  the 
latter."3  To  determine  the  question  whether  better 
water  could  be  obtained  at  Galveston,  the  city  authori- 
ties caused  a  well  to  be  bored  to  the  depth  of  3,070  feet, 
of  which  it  is  said  that  "the  water  is  brackish,  but 
apparently  less  so  than  that  from  any  other  well  on 
the  island."4 

1  See  "  Geological  Survey  of  Texas.    Preliminary  Reports  on  the  Gulf 
Coastal  Slope.    By  J.  A.  Singley."     Austin,  June,  1893. 

2  The  flow  from  all  these  wells  is  collected  in  a  reservoir  and  pumped 
into  a  standpipe,  whence  it  is  distributed  to  all  parts  of  the  city  for  use 
in  case  of  fire.     The  total  flow  of  these  wells  is  about  2,300,000  gallons 
per  day.     "  The  water  is  used  to  a  limited  extent  for  domestic  purposes 
when  a  drouth  begets  a  scarcity  of  cistern  water."     It  is  used  also  in 
smaller  manufacturing  establishments,  most  of  the  larger  having  wells  of 
their  own. 

8  Loc.  cit.,  p.  1.     (From  Fourth  Annual  Report,  1892.) 
4  At  this  depth  "  the  City  Council  concluded  that  the  experiment  had 
been  carried  far  enough,  and  discontinued  the  work." 


86  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — TEXAS. 

Various  wells  sunk  by  private  parties  on  the  island 
of  Galveston  furnish  water  containing  from  two  to 
three  hundred  grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon, 
most  of  which  is  common  salt.  In  spite  of  this  high 
percentage  of  foreign  matter,  the  water  of  some  of 
these  wells  seems  to  be  used  under  boilers.  The  Arte- 
sian wells  on  the  mainland  near  Galveston  seem  to 
furnish  a  decidedly  better  quality  of  water  than  those 
on  the  island. 

A  large  number  of  Artesian  wells  have  been  bored 
in  the  coast  region  of  Texas,  some  of  which  furnish 
water  much  superior  in  quality  to  that  of  the  Galves- 
ton wells.  Thus  the  city  of  Houston  has  nearly  a 
hundred  wrells  within  its  corporate  limits,  the  water 
being  derived  from  about  six  different  water-bearing 
sands,  while  the  depth  of  the  wells  varies  from  115  to 
564  feet.  The  "city's  supply"  (probably  that  dis- 
tributed in  the  mains)  is  said  to  be  over  4,000,000 
gallons  per  day.  A  single  analysis  of  the  Houston 
Artesian  water  gives  the  total  solid  matter  as  being 
twenty-one  grains  per  gallon,  carbonate  of  lime  being 
the  predominating  ingredient.  The  water  from  some 
of  the  other  wells  in  the  coast  region  is  much  inferior 
to  that  obtained  at  Houston ;  but  in  some  cases  these 
Artesian  waters  appear  to  have  been  used  to  a  limited 
extent  for  irrigation.  In  various  localities  —  as  at 
Corpus  Christi,  where  a  well  was  sunk  to  the  depth 
of  1,765  feet  without  finding  water  that  could  be 
utilized  by  the  city  —  Artesian  borings  seem  to  have 
been  entirely  unsuccessful,  either  no  water  at  all  having 
been  obtained,  or  else  only  that  which  was  not  fit  for 
any  use  whatever. 


IRRIGATION  IN  THE  ARID  REGION.  87 

What  has  been  said  in  the  preceding  pages  will  be 
sufficient  evidence  that  for  the  States  lying  adjacent  to 
the  Mississippi  River  on  both  sides  irrigation  by  means 
of  Artesian  wells  is  a  matter  in  which  success  is,  on  the 
whole,  rarely  to  be  expected.  The  quality  of  the  water 
obtained  from  deep  borings  is  almost  everywhere  such 
as  to  make  it  entirely  unavailable  for  irrigational 
purposes,  as  also,  indeed,  for  any  purpose  other  than 
medicinal.  While,  as  already  remarked,  water  in 
abundance  and  of  good  quality  would  be  extremely 
desirable,  especially  if  decidedly  softer  than  that  fur- 
nished by  ordinary  wells  or  from  the  rivers  of  a  region 
so  extensively  underlain  by  calcareous  rocks,  it  is  much 
less  important  that  such  a  supply  should  be  obtained 
for  irrigational  purposes  in  the  States  adjacent  to  the 
Mississippi  than  in  those  lying  still  farther  west,  where 
the  rainfall  is  insufficient  for  successful  cultivation. 

The  isohyetal  line  of  twenty-six  inches  may  be 
taken  as  approximately  marking  the  boundary  between 
the  sufficiently  and  insufficiently  watered  portions  of 
the  Western  region.  This  leaves  to  the  east,  or  in  the 
moister  area,  a  large  part  of  Minnesota,  the  eastern 
edge  of  Nebraska,  rather  less  than  half  of  Kansas, 
most  of  the  Indian  Territory,  and  about  half  of  Texas. 
Through  all  the  region  to  the  west  of  this  isohyetal 
the  rainfall  may  with  propriety  be  considered  insuffi- 
cient, although  there  is  a  belt  of  considerable  width 
lying  between  the  isohyetals  of  twenty-six  and  twenty 
inches  in  which  the  conditions  with  respect  to  moisture 
are  intermediate  between  those  of  fairly  sufficient  and 
decidedly  insufficient  supply.  In  the  region  enclosed 
between  the  isohyetals  of  twenty-six  and  twenty  inches, 


88  IRRIGATION— U.  S.   GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY. 

and  still  more  in  that  beyond  the  latter,  almost  as  far 
as  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  irrigation  question  is  an  im- 
portant one,  and,  as  shown  in  the  preceding  pages,  one 
which  has  received  a  considerable  amount  of  attention 
from  the  general  government,  as  well  as  from  some  of 
the  individual  States  and  Territories. 

The  work  of  the  Irrigation  Department  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey,  as  far  as  its  results 
are  accessible  up  to  the  present  time,  has  received  a 
brief  notice  in  the  preceding  pages.1  It  now  remains 
to  give  some  further  details  with  regard  to  what  has 
been  actually  accomplished  in  the  way  of  irrigation  in 
the  Western  or  arid  region  of  the  country.  In  doing 
this  the  chief  guide  will  necessarily  be  the  publications 
of  the  Census  of  1890,  together  with  various  official 
documents  issued  by  authority  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  and  by  the  Signal  Service.2 

All  that  has  been  done  up  to  the  present  time  toward 
mitigating  the  effects  of  a  naturally  arid  climate  in 
the  more  arid  portion  of  the  Cordilleran  region  is  com- 
paratively insignificant,  as  is  shown  both  by  the  figures 
showing  the  density  of  the  population  of  that  region, 
and  by  the  actual  census  returns  of  the  percentage  of 
the  area  of  the  different  States  and  Territories  actually 
under  irrigation  at  the  time  the  statistics  were  collected 
for  the  census  of  1890.  The  annexed  table  exhibits 
these  results,  the  density  of  the  population  in  the  States 
and  Territories  included  in  the  list  being  given  for  the 
year  1880,  as  well  as  for  1890.3 

1  See  ante,  pp.  29-31. 

2  Reference  has  already  been  made  to  some  of  the  more  important 
of  these  documents  on  pages  36,  46,  and  47. 

8  See  also  the  table  on  page  28,  in  which  a  general  statement  is  given 


IRRIGATION  — CENSUS  STATISTICS.  89 

T>Q™          o  «*  Population  Population 

State  or  Territory.  Percentage  of          per  Sq.  Mile,  per  Sq.  Mile, 

1880.  1890. 

Idaho 0.4  0.39  1.00 

Montana     ....  0.4  0.27  0.91 

Wyoming   ....  0.4  0.21  0.62 

Utah 0.5  1.75  2.53 

Nevada 0.3  0.57  0.42 

New  Mexico    ...  0.1  0.98  1.25 

Arizona 0.1  0.36  0.53 

The  above  enumerated  States  and  Territories  are  all 
included  within  the  arid  belt  of  the  country,  and  form 
its  larger  portion.  The  exceeding  smallness  of  their 
total  area  under  irrigation  at  the  latest  date  for  which 
statistics  are  available  cannot  fail  to  be  noticed,  as 
also  the  scantiness  of  the  population  of  this  region, 
and  the  slight  change  in  this  respect  which  took  place 
during  the  period  elapsing  between  the  time  of  taking 
the  census  of  1880  and  that  of  1890.  The  density  of 
the  population  of  this  region  is  conditioned  chiefly  by 
the  development  of  its  mining  resources,  what  small 
increase  there  is  being  almost  entirely  dependent  on 
this  branch  of  industry,  as  has  been  shown  by  the  de- 
cline of  the  population  of  the  State  of  Nevada  which 
has  taken  place  since  some  of  the  more  important  min- 
ing districts  have  ceased  to  be  worked  with  profit,  and 
as  is  likely  to  be  the  case  in  other  parts  of  the  region 
in  question,  where  experience  has  shown  that  the  mines, 
as  a  rule,  are  not  of  a  kind  likely  to  hold  in  depth,  a 
large  portion  of  the  occurrences  of  ore  having  more 
the  nature  of  contact  deposits  than  of  true  veins. 

In  two  other  States,  and  in  two  only,  has  the  census 

with  regard  to  the  area  and  population  of  the  Cordilleran  division  and 
its  subdivisions  in  the  years  1880  and  1890. 


90          IRRIGATION  — WASHINGTON  AND  OREGON. 

of  1890  given  the  statistics  of  irrigation  in  such  a  form 
that  the  actual  importance  of  this  branch  of  agricul- 
ture can  be  distinctly  stated.  These  two  States  are 
Washington  and  Oregon :  in  the  former  the  percentage 
of  irrigated  area  is  0.11,  in  the  latter  0.3.  Both  these 
States,  however,  lie  in  considerable  part  within  the 
best-watered- portion  of  the  country,  the  rainfall  on  all 
the  area  west  of  the  Cascade  Range  being  more  than 
ample,  and  it  is  here  that  almost  the  whole  increase 
of  population  in  the  period  between  1880  and  1890 
took  place.  This  increase  was  large,  especially  in  the 
case  of  Washington,  the  density  of  whose  population 
rose  in  that  interval  from  1.12  to  5.22,  while  that  of 
Oregon  increased  from  1.85  to  3.32  per  square  mile. 
This  increase  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  area 
west  of  the  Cascade  Range,  that  to  the  east  of  it 
belonging  to  the  arid  belt,  and  having  for  the  most 
part  a  decidedly  unfertile  soil.1  Irrigation  in  Oregon 
is  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  counties  east  of 
the  Cascade  Range.  In  two  counties  to  the  west  of 
that  range,  however,  a  little  has  been  done  in  this 
direction. 

Two  other  States  are  lacking  in  any  complete  sta- 
tistical returns  of  irrigation,  namely,  California  and 
Colorado,  in  both  of  which  much  has  been  done  toward 
the  improvement  of  the  water  supply  with  reference 
to  mining  as  well  as  to  agriculture.  Furthermore, 
nothing  is  said  of  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  and 

1  This  lofty  and  precipitous  range  of  mountains  effects  a  marked 
change  of  the  climate  of  the  two  States,  cutting  off  almost  entirely  the 
precipitation,  which  north  from  the  northern  border  of  California  is 
extremely  copious  on  the  western,  and  almost  null  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  range. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  FOR  IRRIGATION.  91 

Texas,  parts  of  each  of  which  States  lie  within  the 
region  insufficiently  supplied  with  moisture,  and  where 
irrigation  is  desirable.  This  incompleteness  of  the  irri- 
gational  statistics  is  in  part  remedied  by  another 
Census  Bulletin,1  devoted  to  the  subject  of  "  Artesian 
Wells  for  Irrigation,"  in  which  some  details  are  given 
with  reference  to  all  the  States  and  Territories  lying 
along  the  eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  the 
Great  Basin,  and  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

According  to  this  document,  there  were,  in  June, 
1890,  in  the  States  and  Territories  forming  the  west- 
ern half  of  the  United  States,  8,097  Artesian  wells, 
the  average  depth  of  which  is  210.41  feet,  and  the 
average  discharge  54.43  gallons  per  minute,  while  the 
average  area  irrigated  by  each  well  is  13.21  acres,  and 
the  average  cost  of  water  per  acre  irrigated,  $18.55. 
These  wells  are  very  unequally  distributed  within  the 
area  included  in  the  investigation,  for  over  one  third 
of  them  are  in  California,  and  nearly  one  third  in 
Utah.  The  remainder  (a  little  less  than  one  third) 
are  about  equally  divided  between  Colorado,  North 
Dakota,  South  Dakota,  and  Texas,  while  in  the  other 
States  and  Territories  the  number  of  Artesian  wells  is 
quite  insignificant. 

The  lack  of  information  in  the  general  irrigation 
reports  in  regard  to  the  belt  of  States  lying  at  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  which  are 
partly  within  the  arid  region,  namely,  the  Dakotas, 
Nebraska,  Kansas,  and  Texas,  is  in  part  supplied  by 
the  reports  of  Mr.  Hinton,  of  which  an  enumeration 
has  already  been  made.2  Besides  these  reports,  made 

1  Bulletin  No.  193,  issued  June  11,  1892.  2  See  ante,  p.  47. 


92  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — ON  THE  PLAINS. 

under  the  authority  of  the  Agricultural  Department  of 
the  United  States,  voluminous  documents  have  been 
issued  within  the  past  three  years  by  Congress,  under 
the  title  of  "Keport  of  the  Special  Committee  of  the 
United  States  Senate  on  the  Irrigation  and  Reclama- 
tion of  Arid  Lands."  The  first  of  these  special  reports 
bears  the  date  of  1890,  and  is  entitled  "  Report  of 
Committee  and  Views  of  the  Minority." l  The  second 
report  of  this  committee,  also  issued  with  the  date  of 
1890,  is  entitled  "The  Northwest."2  The  third  is 
devoted  to  the  "Great  Basin  Region  of  California,"3 
and  the  fourth  to  the  "Rocky  Mountain  Region  and 
Great  Plains."4  The  fifth  contains  various  miscella- 
neous papers  on  irrigation."  5  The  sixth  is  essentially 
a  reprint  of  Mr.  Hinton's  first  report  on  "  Irrigation 
in  the  United  States."6 

The  report  of  Messrs.  White  and  Aughey,7  devoted 
to  Artesian  wells  upon  the  Great  Plains,  and  made 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
begins  by  giving  a  general  idea  of  the  topography  and 
surface  features  of  that  part  of  the  United  States 

1  Senate  Document,  51st  Congress,  1st  Session,  Report  928,  Part  1. 
Washington,  1890. 

2  This  is  Part  2,  Volume  I.,  of  the  above  cited  Report. 

8  This  is  Part  3  of  the  same  Report,  and  is  called  Volume  II. ;  it  con- 
tains 573  pages. 

4  Part  4,  and  Volume  III.  of  the  same,  with  608  pages. 

6  This  part,  which  is  numbered  Volume  IV.  of  the  series,  contains 
"  Statements  of  the  Director  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey, 
Reports  of  United  States  Consuls  in  Countries  using  Irrigation,  and  Mis- 
cellaneous Papers  on  the  Subject  of  Reclamation,"  in  all  384  pages. 

6  It  is  called,  on  the  title-page,  "A  Second  Edition  of  Miscellane- 
ous Document  No.  15,  49th  Congress."      All  these  documents,  forming 
together  "  Report  928,  51st  Congress,  1st  Session,"  in  six  parts,  bear  the 
date  of  1890. 

7  Published  in  1887.     See  ante,  p.  47. 


ARTESIAN  BORINGS  —  COLORADO.  93 

which  lies  between  the  102d  meridian  and  the  eastern 
base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  this  being  the  region 
assigned  to  the  commissioners  for  examination,  but  it 
is  more  especially  devoted  to  that  part  of  this  area 
which  lies  within  the  boundaries  of  Colorado,  want  of 
time  having  made  an  examination  of  the  whole  district 
impracticable.  Thirteen  inches  is  assumed  to  be  the 
the  mean  rainfall  over  this  region,  and  a  meridian 
100  miles  east  of  the  102d  is  said  to  be  generally 
regarded  as,  at  least  approximately,  representing  the 
western  boundary  of  the  great  agricultural  region  lying 
directly  eastward  of  the  district  explored,  beyond  which 
to  the  westward  the  successful  growth  of  farm  crops  is 
not  practicable  without  irrigation.  From  this  meridian 
the  aridity  increases  until  the  102d  meridian  is  crossed, 
from  which  line  westward  the  maximum  for  that  lati- 
tude is  encountered. 

Within  the  arid  belt  as  thus  limited  the  commis- 
sioners remark  that  several  attempts  have  been  made 
to  secure  supplies  of  water  by  means  of  Artesian 
borings,  all  except  one  of  these  attempts  having  been 
the  work  of  private  parties.  One  boring,  at  Fort 
Lyon,  was  done  under  the  auspices  of  the  Agricul- 
tural Department.  This  boring  was  made  by  the 
Commissioners  the  subject  of  a  special  report,  which 
was  published  in  connection  with  the  general  report 
issued  a  year  later.1  The  boring  at  Fort  Lyon,  which 
was  carried  to  the  depth  of  719  feet,  was  not  a  success, 
the  flow  of  water  being  too  small  to  be  of  any  practical 
importance.  All  the  borings  made  by  private  parties 

1  This  special  report,  addressed  to  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture, 
bears  the  date  of  October  20, 1881. 


94  ARTESIAN  BORINGS —  THE  PLAINS. 

seem  also  to  have  been  failures.1  The  conclusion  of 
the  Commissioners  seems  to  have  been  decidedly  unfa- 
vorable to  the  project  of  obtaining  water  in  this  region 
by  means  of  Artesian  borings.  Their  statement  to  this 
effect  is  given  in  the  following  words :  "  After  a  careful 
examination  of  all  the  facts  that  we  have  been  able  to 
gather,  it  is  our  opinion  that  the  prospects  of  obtaining 
a  satisfactory  supply  of  water  by  means  of  Artesian 
borings  in  our  district  are  not  very  encouraging ;  but 
there  are  portions  of  it,  which  we  shall  designate, 
within  which  we  think  that  success  may  be  more 
reasonably  hoped  for  than  in  others." 

Farther  on  in  this  report  the  Commissioners  state 
that  "the  characters  of  the  superficial  and  tertiary 
deposits  are  such  as  to  offer  very  little  encouragement 
for  making  Artesian  borings  in  them ;  and  therefore 
borings  of  slight  depth  are  not,  in  our  opinion,  likely 
to  be  successful  anywhere  within  the  proper  limits 
of  this  district."  It  is,  however,  suggested  that  the 
Dakota  and  Triassic  sandstones  may  prove  to  be  water- 
bearing; but  to  reach  the  former  a  depth  of  from 
1,200  to  2,000  feet  must  be  attained,  while  to  reach 
the  deeper  possibly  water-bearing  formations  will  prob- 
ably require  a  boring  600  to  800  feet  deeper. 

1  In  the  Appendix  to  the  Report  of  Messrs.  White  and  Aughey  an 
additional  statement  is  given  by  Mr.  Horace  Beach,  who  was  added  to 
the  Commission  "  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  statistics  in  relation  to 
the  practical  work  of  boring  Artesian  wells  in  the  region  under  investi- 
gation." Mr.  Beach  gives  details  in  regard  to  borings  made  at  or  near 
South  Pueblo,  Denver,  Coal  Creek,  Greeley,  and  Kit  Carson,  Colorado ; 
Servilleta,  New  Mexico  ;  and  Cheyenne,  Wyoming.  These  all  appear  to 
have  been  failures,  with  the  exception  of  a  second  boring  at  Pueblo,  of 
which  it  is  said  that  at  a  depth  of  1,200  feet  "  we  have  a  flowing  well  of 
warm  water,  nearly  pure." 


SETTLEMENTS  ON  THE  PLAINS.  95 

With  regard  to  the  irrigational  condition  of  the 
region  reported  on  by  Messrs.  White  and  Aughey,  and 
the  so-called  "Great  Plains"  in  general,  the  following 
remarks  will  here  be  in  place,  in  preparing  which  all 
the  available  sources  of  information  have  been  con- 
sulted, supplemented  by  numerous  visits  to  the  region 
in  question. 

After  the  wave  of  population  —  both  that  arising 
from  the  natural  increase  and  that  furnished  by  the 
extraordinary  immigration  into  the  United  States  — 
had  spread  itself  over  the  well-watered  portion  of  the 
country,  and  taken  possession  of  the  most  easily  acces- 
sible and  agriculturally  the  most  valuable  tracts  offered 
for  sale  by  the  Government,  later  comers  were  obliged 
to  go  farther  west  in  order  to  acquire  cheap  home- 
steads, and  they  then  found  themselves  obliged  to  take 
up  with  land  less  favorably  situated,  both  with  regard 
to  climate  and  distance  from  Eastern  and  European 
markets,  than  their  predecessors  had  been  able  to  se- 
cure.1 This  condition  of  things  came  about  gradually. 
Immigrants  unacquainted  with  the  climate,  and  yield- 
ing in  part  to  the  pressure  of  necessity,  or  perhaps 
influenced  by  the  misrepresentations  of  speculators  in 
government  and  railroad  lands,  found  themselves  occu- 
pying a  region  where  the  rainfall  is  insufficient  for  car- 
rying on  agricultural  pursuits  in  the  manner  to  which 
they  had  been  previously  accustomed,  the  consequence 
being  that  in  these  later  years  there  has  been  a  con- 
stant struggle  on  the  part  of  settlers  within  or  on  the 

i  See  the  present  writer's  "  United  States :  Facts  and  Figures  illus- 
trating the  Physical  Geography  of  the  Country,  and  its  Material  Re- 
sources" (1889),  pp.  256-258. 


96        THE   GREAT  PLAINS  —  CLIMATIC   CONDITIONS. 

borders  of  the  arid  region  in  some  way  or  other  to  get 
over  these  difficulties. 

Experience  has  shown  that  in  the  belt  of  land  inter- 
mediate between  the  distinctly  well  watered  and  the 
decidedly  insufficiently  watered  areas  the  conditions  of 
successive  seasons  are  variable.  The  rainfall  for  a  few 
years  may  be  fairly  sufficient  for  the  maturing  of  the 
crops,  but  this  cycle  of  favorable  years  is  in  turn  suc- 
ceeded by  another  of  less  favorable  character.  This 
irregularity  of  the  rainfall  is  not  a  peculiar  feature  of 
the  region  in  question:  the  same  thing  happens  every- 
where in  districts  where  the  average  precipitation  is 
barely  sufficient  for  successful  culture.  No  regular 
periodicity  has  thus  far  been  discovered  in  this  recur- 
rence of  cycles  of  rainier  and  drier  seasons  in  any 
country,  nor  have  the  causes  of  such  irregularities  been 
satisfactorily  made  out.  These  fluctuations  in  the 
annual  rainfall  are  by  no  means  limited  to  regions  of 
small  rainfall,  but  their  disastrous  effects  are  naturally 
much  more  strongly  felt  where  the  average  precipita- 
tion is  only  just  enough  for  the  maturing  of  the  crops. 

The  consequences  of  this  condition  of  things  in  the 
arid  and  semi-arid  parts  of  the  United  States  have 
been  manifold.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  early  recog- 
nized that  the  decidedly  insufficiently  watered  area 
extending  east  of  the  eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains —  the  Great  Plains  —  was  naturally  a  pastoral 
region,  better  suited  to  raising  cattle  than  for  any 
other  purpose.1  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  cattle- 

1  This  is  the  case  all  over  the  world.  Regions  of  small  rainfall,  if  not 
too  cold,  are  pastoral  regions,  inhabited  by  more  or  less  nomadic  tribes. 
Such  are  the  Steppes  of  Asia,  and  the  Pampas  of  South  America.  The 


THE   GREAT  PL  AINS  —  CLIMATIC  CONDITIONS.      97 

raising  business  the  methods  of  those  thus  engaged 
were  simple.  A  locality  where  sufficient  water  for 
stock  could  be  had  —  usually  at  the  base  of  some 
mountain  range  —  was  taken  possession  of,  and  pur- 
chased if  necessary.  From  this  as  a  base  of  oper- 
ations a  "  cattle-range  "  was  established  on  that 
purchase,  and  by  having  possession  of  the  only  avail- 
able water  a  very  large  district  might  be  made 
available  for  stock-raising  without  the  necessity  of 
purchasing  more  than  a  small  portion  of  it.  But,  as 
more  settlers  made  their  appearance,  claiming  land 
occupied  by  others  who  had  acquired  no  legal  rights 
to  it,  conflicts  began  to  arise,  and  sometimes  be- 
came quite  serious.  It  is  true,  also,  that  the  vari- 
ous attempts  which  have  been  made  to  supplement 
the  natural  supply  of  water  by  means  of  ditches  and 
Artesian  wells  have  in  certain  localities  been  suffi- 
ciently successful  to  lead  the  settlers  to  realize  the 
fact  that  comparatively  small  areas  well  cultivated 
were  decidedly  more  profitable  than  tracts  too  large 
to  be  properly  developed. 

The  statistics  of  the  census  of  1890  show  as  plainly 
as  possible  the  results  of  the  over-hasty  occupation  of 
land  too  dry  to  be  successfully  cultivated  except  during 
the  cycles  of  more  than  average  rainfall.  The  follow- 
ing extract  from  the  census  documents  well  illustrates 

arid  part  of  the  United  States  is,  however,  to  a  considerable  extent,  a  rich 
mineral  region,  which  fact  modifies  greatly  the  conditions  of  settlement 
and  distribution  of  the  population.  Moreover,  the  mining  districts  within 
the  arid  region  are  essentially  different  in  their  topographical  character 
from  the  non-metalliferous  region  of  the  Plains.  The  only  point  of 
agreement  between  the  Plains  and  the  Great  Basin  is  lack  of  moist- 
ure; in  all  other  respects  the  differences  between  the  two  areas  are 
fundamental. 


98       THE  GREAT  PLAINS  -  AGRICULTURE. 

this  condition  of  things,  as  revealed  by  comparison  of 
various  State  censuses  taken  in  1885  with  the  results 
of  the  United  States  census  of  1890 :  "During  the  past 
ten  years  the  population  of  Dakota,  considering  the  two 
States  of  North  Dakota  and  South  Dakota  together,  has 
increased  from  135,177  to  511,527,  or  278  per  cent; 
Nebraska  from  452,402  to  1,058,910,  or  134  per  cent ; 
and  Kansas  from  996,096  to  1,427,096,  or  43  per 
cent.  This  increase  has  not,  however,  continued  uni- 
formly throughout  the  decade.  In  1885  Dakota  con- 
tained 415,610  inhabitants,  or  more  than  four  fifths 
of  its  present  population.  Nebraska  contained  740,645 
inhabitants  in  the  same  year,  thus  dividing  the  numer- 
ical increase  equally  between  the  two  halves  of  the 
decade,  but  leaving  the  greater  percentage  of  increase 
in  the  first  half.  In  the  same  year  Kansas  by  its  State 
census  had  1,268,530  inhabitants,  showing  that  nearly 
two  thirds  of  the  numerical  gain  was  acquired  during 
the  first  half  of  the  decade.  The  industries  of  these 
States  are  almost  purely  agricultural,  and  are  dependent 
on  the  supply  of  moisture,  either  in  the  form  of  rain 
or  by  irrigation.  Through  these  States  passes  what  is 
known  as  the  sub-humid  belt,  a  strip  of  country  several 
degrees  in  width,  in  which  during  rainy  years  there  is 
an  abundance  of  moisture  for  the  needs  of  crops,  while 
in  the  years  when  the  rainfall  is  below  the  average  the 
supply  is  deficient.  In  this  region  little  provision  has 
been  made  for  artificial  irrigation,  the  settlers  having 
thus  far  been  content  to  depend  upon  rainfall.  Into 
this  region  the  settlers  flocked  in  large  numbers  in  the 
early  years  of  the  decade,  drawn  thither  by  the  fertility 
of  the  land,  and  by  the  fact  that  for  a  few  years  the 


THE  GREAT  PLAINS  —  MO  VEMENT  OF  POPULATION.      99 

rainfall  had  been  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  agriculture. 
During  the  past  two  or  three  years,  however,  the  con- 
ditions of  rainfall  have  materially  changed.  It  has 
fallen  decidedly  below  the  normal,  and  the  settlers 
have  thereby  been  forced  to  emigrate.  Thousands  of 
families  have  abandoned  this  region  and  gone  to  Okla- 
homa and  the  Eocky  Mountain  region.  This  migration 
is  well  shown  in  the  progress  of  Kansas,  as  indicated  by 
its  annual  censuses.  These  censuses  show  a  rapid  in- 
crease in  population  from  1880  up  to  1887;  1888  shows 
but  a  slight  increase  over  1887,  while  1889  shows  a  re- 
duction in  the  population,  leading  up  to  the  further 
reduction  shown  by  the  federal  census  in  1890. 5>1 

Statements  to  the  same  effect  have  been  repeatedly 
made  in  other  official  documents  of  recent  date,  of  which 
the  following  may  be  offered  as  an  example:  "In  the 
first  part  of  the  present  decade  population  poured  in 
upon  the  Great  Plains  region.  The  earlier  years  of 
sufficient  rainfall  were  followed  by  years  of  drought, 
in  which  a  large  percentage  of  the  success  previously 
achieved  was  destroyed.  Reaction  set  in,  and  for  a 
time  it  appeared  as  if  the  entire  Plains  region  would 
have  to  be  given  over  to  cattlemen ;  but  slowly,  how- 
ever, the  cattle-range  business  is  changing  as  the  pres- 
sure of  population  continues  with  more  or  less  vigor, 
and  ranchmen  are  becoming  unable,  east  of  the  basins 
of  the  Eocky  Mountains  at  least,  to  command  large 
areas  of  natural  grass  land."  2 

The  fact  seems  to  be,  however,  that  this  large  migra- 
tion of  the  population  from  the  arid  region  of  the 

1  See  "  Census  Bulletin  No.  16,"  issued  Dec.  12,  1890,  pp.  7,  8. 

2  Hinton's  Progress  Report  for  1890,  p.  15. 


100          GOVERNMENT  REPORTS  ON  IRRIGATION. 

Plains  was  due  —  in  part,  at  least  —  to  a  realization 
of  the  unfavorable  conditions  normally  prevalent  there, 
rather  than  to  any  actual  temporary  decrease  of  the 
precipitation  during  the  latter  part  of  the  decade 
1880-89,  since  the  statistics  of  rainfall  collected  by 
the  Signal  Service  during  that  period  over  the  region 
in  question  do  not  indicate  that  there  was  any  percepti- 
ble change  in  this  respect,  or  any  noticeable  difference 
in  the  amount  of  precipitation,  during  the  first  and 
second  halves  of  this  decade.1 

The  unfavorable  report  of  Messrs.  White  and  Aughey 
on  the  possibility  of  procuring  Artesian  water  in  suffi- 
cient quantity  and  of  suitable  quality  for  irrigation  on 
the  Great  Plains  did  not,  however,  lead  to  any  diminu- 
tion of  the  efforts  of  the  settlers  in  that  region  to  have 
still  further  expenditures  made  by  the  Government 
for  the  purpose  of  elucidating  this  question.  The  doc- 
uments to  which  reference  has  already  been  made 2  are 
the  outcome  of  this  additional  work,  so  far  as  the 
results  are  at  present  available,  and  some  critical  re- 
marks may  here  be  introduced  with  reference  to  their 
contents. 

We  find  in  Mr.  Hinton's  "  Progress  Eeport  in  Irriga- 
tion in  the  United  States,  Part  I.,  prepared  under  the 
Direction  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,"  that  this 
work  is  now  designated  as  the  "Artesian,  Underflow, 

1  For  a  further  discussion  of  the   question  whether  there  is  any 
statistical  proof  of  a  change  or  periodical  fluctuation  in  the  amount  of 
precipitation  in  later  years  in  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States,  and 
for  remarks  on  changes  in  climate  in  general,  as  having  been  caused  by 
the  agency  of  man,  see  Appendix  B. 

2  See  ante,  p.  92.     See  also  Appendix  C,  in  which  will  be  found  as  full 
a  list  as  can  be  made,  up  to  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  present 
volume,  of  official  documents  relating  to  the  subject  of  irrigation. 


UNDERFLOW  AND  PHREATIC  WATER.      101 

and  Irrigation  Investigation,"  of  which  Mr.  Hinton  is 
the  "Special  Agent."  l  We  find,  also,  that  a  large  corps 
of  assistants  (eighteen  in  all)  were,  or  had  been,  em- 
ployed in  this  work  at  the  time  this  report  was  made. 
The  term  "underflow,"  here  introduced,  demands  a 
special  definition.  This  word  seems  to  be  used  by 
Mr.  Hinton  as  synonymous  with  "  undersheet,"  a  term 
also  frequently  employed  by  him  in  the  report  in 
question.  The  word  "phreatic,"  which  also  often  ap- 
pears in  this  document,  needs  some  explanation,  since 
it  is  not  to  be  found  in  English  dictionaries. 

The  underflow  or  undersheet  water,  from  the  util- 
ization of  which  so  much  seems  to  be  expected,  is 
nowhere  definitely  defined  in  Mr.  Hinton's  reports ; 
but,  as  nearly  as  can  be  made  out  from  various  state- 
ments made  by  him,  it  would  appear  that,  in  his  opin- 
ion, a  very  much  larger  volume  of  rain  falls  on  the 
basin  or  catchment  area  of  the  Missouri-Mississippi 
than  is  delivered  at  its  mouth,  and  that  much  the 
larger  portion  of  this  precipitation  finds  its  way  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  under  ground,  as  "  seepage  and 
percolation"  of  this  river.  There  is,  therefore,  a  sub- 
terranean mass  of  water  —  an  "underflow"  or  "under- 
sheet "  —  which,  if  penetrated  by  deep  borings,  or  even 
by  ordinary  wells,  is  capable  of  furnishing  a  sufficient 
amount  of  moisture  to  allow  of  successful  cultivation 
over  a  vast  area  in  which  the  natural  supply  is  quite 
insufficient  for  that  purpose.  This  source  of  supply 
is  designated  by  Mr.  Hinton  as  "phreatic  water,"  or 
water  which  can  be  utilized  by  means  of  wells.2  The 

1  This  report  bears  the  date  of  1891. 

2  "  Phreatic  "  is  derived  from  the  Greek  <£pe'ap,  which  meant  originally 
a  well,  and  later  a  water-tank,  cistern,  or  reservoir. 


102  UNDERFLOW  AND  IRRIGATION. 

truth  of  this  theory  is  considered  as  having  been  de- 
monstrated both  by  general  physical  and  meteorological 
observation,  and  by  actual  experimental  methods  in 
the  arid  region. 

The  theoretical  proof  of  the  existence  of  an  available 
undersheet  of  water  is  sought  for  in  the  fact  that  the 
discharge  of  the  Mississippi  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is 
only  equal  to  107  cubic  miles  of  water,  while  the  total 
rainfall  in  the  basin  of  that  river  equals  620  cubic 
miles,  leaving  573  cubic  miles  to  be  accounted  for. 
This  amount,  with  some  deduction  for  evaporation, 
must  —  as  is  assumed  —  flow  in  a  subterranean  cur- 
rent ;  and,  as  Mr.  Hinton  remarks,  "  if  we  allow  one 
half  of  this  huge  volume  to  the  western  portion  of 
the  drainage  basin  we  shall  open  a  wide  field  for 
speculation."  l 

There  are  several  reasons  why  these  statements  with 
regard  to  the  supposed  underflow  of  the  Mississippi  and 
its  practical  importance  with  regard  to  irrigation  in  the 
drier  region  of  the  country  cannot  be  accepted  as  hav- 
ing any  real  value,  or  as  being  at  all  applicable  to 
the  matter  under  discussion.  In  the  first  place,  it  is 
by  no  means  the  whole  basin  of  the  Missouri-Mississippi 
which  it  is  desirable  to  have  irrigated,  but  only  a  minor 
portion  of  it.  The  basin  of  the  Mississippi  proper, 
both  before  and  after  the  junction  of  that  river  with 
the  Missouri,  is  almost  entirely  a  well-watered  region. 
The  only  part  of  the  country  which  belongs  to  the 
arid  region,  and  which  is  drained  by  any  other  branch 
of  the  Mississippi  than  the  Missouri,  is  the  head  of 
the  Arkansas.  A  very  small  area  in  Southwestern 

i  See  Hinton's  Progress  Report,  Part  L,  p.  37. 


RAINFALL  IN  MISSISSIPPI  BASIN.  103 

Kansas,  Southeastern  Colorado,  and  Northeastern  New 
Mexico  belongs  to  the  Arkansas  basin.  Practically, 
the  dry  portion  of  the  United  States  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  is  the  basin  of  the  Upper  Missouri 
and  its  tributaries.  The  area  of  the  drainage  basin  of 
the  Missouri  is  a  little  more  than  two  fifths  of  that 
of  the  Missouri-Mississippi,  and  about  two  thirds  of 
this  may  be  considered  as  being  included  within  the 
arid  or  semi-arid  region.  Thus  we  find  that  a  little 
more  than  one  quarter  of  the  basin  of  the  whole  Mis- 
sissippi system  is  all  with  which  we  have  to  do  in 
reference  to  the  irrigation  question,  and  that  statistics 
based  on  the  physical  and  meteorological  conditions  of 
the  whole  basin  have  no  application  here. 

Again,  the  statistics  used  by  Mr.  Hinton  are  far  from 
being  correct,  whether  intended  to  be  used  with  ref- 
erence to  the  rainfall  and  drainage  of  the  entire  Missis- 
sippi basin  or  of  any  part  of  it.  They  are  given  on  the 
authority  of  Mr.  M.  F.  Maury,  whose  work  was  pub- 
lished more  than  thirty  years  ago,  and  who  based  his 
estimate  of  the  average  annual  fall  of  rain  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  on  data  published  by  Mr.  L.  Blodget  in 
1855,  by  whom  it  was  fixed  at  forty  inches.1  A  few 
years  later,  namely,  in  1861,  Messrs.  Humphreys  and 
Abbot,  in  their  elaborate  work  on  the  Physics  and  Hy- 
draulics of  the  Mississippi  River,2  availing  themselves 
of  much  additional  information  furnished  by  Mr.  Blodget 
and  others,  and  coming  down  to  as  late  as  1860,  fixed 
the  average  annual  rainfall  in  the  Mississippi  basin  at 

1  See  M.  F.  Maury,  "  The  Physical  Geography  of  the  Sea,"  Eighth 
Edition,  New  York,  1861,  p.  102. 

2  A  publication  of  the  Bureau  of  Topographical  Engineers,  U.  S.  War 
Department. 


104  RAINFALL  IN  MISSISSIPPI  BASIN. 

30.4  inches,  which  is  about  ten  inches  less  than  the 
number  adopted  by  Mr.  Maury  and  utilized  by  Mr. 
Hinton.  The  average  annual  rainfall  in  the  basin  of 
the  Missouri  was  taken  at  20.9  inches.  The  total  area 
of  the  Mississippi  basin  was  assumed  by  Mr.  Maury  to 
be  982,000  square  miles :  the  figures  adopted  by  Messrs. 
Humphreys  and  Abbot  are  1,244,000  square  miles,  or 
262,000  square  miles  more  than  Mr.  Maury' s  estimate.1 
The  object  of  this  last-named  author  in  discussing  the 
rainfall  and  area  of  this  basin  was  to  use  the  facts  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  the  vast  amount  of  water  taken 
up  in  this  region  by  evaporation.  He  assumed  that  all 
the  rainfall  which  was  not  poured  into  the  ocean  by 
the  Mississippi  was  disposed  of  in  that  way,  entirely 

1  The  latest  official  determination  of  the  area  of  the  Mississippi  basin 
—  that  of  Mr.  Gannett,  published  in  the  Census  Reports  of  1880  —  gives 
1,240,039  square  miles,  a  result  differing  very  little  from  that  adopted  by 
Messrs,  Humphreys  and  Abbot.  The  discharge  of  the  Mississippi,  or  of 
any  one  of  its  branches,  depends  on  various  conditions,  considerably 
complicated  in  their  combined  action.  The  amount  of  the  rainfall,  the 
character  of  the  climate,  and  the  nature  of  the  soil,  are  the  essential 
factors  in  bringing  about  the  final  result.  The  following  table,  exhib- 
iting the  amount  of  annual  rainfall  in  each  basin,  including  that  of  the 
main  river  as  well  as  of  its  various  tributaries,  and  the  percentage 
of  that  rainfall  discharged,  as  determined  by  Messrs.  Humphreys  and 
Abbot,  will  show  that  the  amount  discharged  by  any  one  of  these 
streams  is  —  to  a  considerable  extent,  at  least  —  determined  by  the 
amount  of  rainfall  in  the  basin  which  it  drains. 

TSTaino  nt  P{«n«  Inches  of          Percentage  of 

Rainfall.  Discharge. 

Yazoo 46.3  90 

St.  Francis 41.1  90 

Ohio 41.5  24 

Red 39.0  20 

Upper  Mississippi 35.2  24 

Arkansas 29.3  15 

Missouri 20.9  15 

Missouri-Mississippi 30.4  25 


EVAPORATION  AND  PERCOLATION.      105 

ignoring  the  fact  that  a  portion  of  it  must  percolate 
the  ground  and  be  held  there  permanently.1 

Mr.  Hinton,  on  the  other  hand,  almost  entirely  over- 
looks, or  greatly  underrates,  the  amount  of  the  rainfall 
which  is  lost  by  evaporation.  In  commenting  on  Mr. 
Maury's  figures  he  assumes  that  this  loss  amounts  to 
only  170  cubic  miles,  or  about  twenty-seven  per  cent 
of  the  annual  precipitation  in  the  Mississippi  basin. 
Of  the  correctness  of  this  estimate  no  proof  is  offered : 
it  seems  to  be  merely  a  guess,  and  one  which  is  very 
wide  of  the  mark,  as  will  here  be  explained. 

There  are  no  precise  data  by  which  to  fix  the 
amount  of  evaporation  from  the  surface  of  the  soil, 
or  of  percolation  through  it,  anywhere  in  the  United 
States.  There  is  abundant  reason,  however,  for  be- 
lieving the  latter  to  be  very  small  in  amount  in  every 
portion  of  either  the  arid  or  the  semi-arid  part  of  the 
country.  The  most  reliable  and  continued  observations 
on  percolation  and  evaporation  have  been  made  in  Eng- 
land, and  especially  in  the  neighborhood  of  London,  by 
means  of  the  Dalton  gauge. 

Experiments  conducted  by  Mr.  Charles  Greaves  on 
the  river  Lea,  at  the  intake  of  the  East  London  water- 
works, showed  that  as  the  average  of  twenty-two  years' 
observation  the  annual  rainfall  was  25.837,  the  per- 
colation 6.866,  and  the  evaporation  from  the  ground 
18.970  inches.  At  King's  Langley  the  Dalton  gauge, 
observed  for  eight  years,  indicated  that,  the  average 

1  Having  shown,  as  he  thinks,  that  the  rainfall  in  the  Mississippi 
basin  amounts  to  an  average  of  620  cubic  miles  annually,  and  that  the 
discharge  of  that  river  is  107  cubic  miles,  he  adds :  "  This  would  leave 
513  cubic  miles  of  water  to  be  evaporated  from  this  river  basin  an- 
nually." Loc.  cit.,  p.  102. 


106       EVAPORATION  AND  PERCOLATION. 

annual  rainfall  being  26.61  inches,  42.4  per  cent  perco- 
lated, through  the  gravelly  loam  forming  the  surface  at 
the  locality,  to  the  depth  of  three  feet ;  between  Octo- 
ber and  March,  10.39  inches  percolated  the  soil  out  of 
a  rainfall  of  13.95  ;  while  between  April  and  Septem- 
ber, the  average  rainfall  being  21.67  inches,  only  0.90 
inch  percolated,  or  7.1  per  cent.  The  experiments  of 
Dr.  Dalton  himself,  at  Manchester,  showed  that,  as  a 
mean  of  three  years'  observations,  the  percolation  was 
twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  rainfall :  those  of  M.  Gas- 
pain,  in  the  South  of  France,  proved  that  the  average 
rainfall  was  twenty-eight  inches,  of  which  twenty  per 
cent  percolated. 

Similarly  numerous  long-continued  observations  in 
Europe  have  shown  that  at  the  time  of  the  year  when 
the  precipitation  is  only  moderate,  with  frequent  inter- 
vals of  dry  weather,  the  percolation  is  almost  null, 
while  during  the  winter  or  rainy  season,  when  the 
ground  remains  saturated  with  moisture  for  a  consid- 
erable length  of  time,  a  large  percentage  of  the  rain- 
fall percolates.  In  general,  in  England  and  Western 
Europe,  the  average  annual  percolation  does  not  much 
exceed  one  fifth  of  the  total  precipitation. 

The  climate  of  the  Great  Plains  is,  however,  much 
less  favorable  to  percolation  than  that  of  any  part  of 
Great  Britain.  In  the  region  east  of  the  base  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  the  precipitation  is  almost  exclusively 
limited  to  the  spring  and  summer  months,  that  in  win- 
ter being  almost  null,  as  may  be  learned  by  examining 
the  various  publications  of  the  Signal  Service.1 

1  See,  especially,  "  Climate  of  Nebraska,"  Senate  Executive  Document 
No.  115,  57th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Washington,  1890 ;  and  "  Irrigation 


CLIMATIC  FEATURES  OF  COLORADO.  107 

Thus,  the  average  monthly  precipitation  at  North 
Platte,  Nebraska,  for  the  five  months  frorn  November 
to  March,  is  only  0.50  inch,  while  that  from  April  to 
October  is  2.52  inches,  or  five  times  as  much. 

The  condition  of  things  in  regard  to  evaporation  in 
the  arid  region  may  be  illustrated  by  the  writer's  experi- 
ence during  a  summer  of  exploration  in  Colorado  along 
the  base  of  the  Front  Range,  and  in  the  region  of  the 
Parks.  During  the  months  of  July  and  August  rain 
fell  copiously  almost  every  afternoon,  so  that  it  only 
happened  twice  during  that  time  that  there  were  as 
much  as  three  consecutive  days  without  it,  and  the 
showers  were  frequently  copious,  continuing  for  several 
hours.  Strange,  however,  as  it  may  appear  to  one  un- 
acquainted with  the  peculiarities  of  the  climate  of  this 
region,  the  ground  was  never  wet  to  the  depth  of  more 
than  a  few  inches.  Not  one  particle  of  water  penetrated 
so  deep  as  to  be  permanently  retained.  The  charac- 
ter of  the  vegetation  in  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Ar- 
kansas, where  these  observations  were  made,  was  such 
as  to  indicate  clearly  that  the  climate  was  exceedingly 
dry,  "  sage-brush  "  and  pinon  pine  abounding,  and  an 
examination  of  the  soil  showed  that  nearly  every  drop 
of  the  rain  which  reached  the  earth  was  returned  to  the 
atmosphere  within  a  few  hours  after  it  had  fallen.  The 
small  amount  of  moisture  which  does  percolate  the  soil 
in  this  region  must  come  from  the  winter  rains,  or  from 
the  melting  of  the  snow  at  the  close  of  winter.  Since 
over  most  of  the  Great  Plains  th6  precipitation  in  the 
form  of  snow  is  exceedingly  small,  unless  in  exceptional 

and  Water  Storage  in  the  Arid  Regions,"  House  Executive  Document 
No.  287,  57th  Congress,  2d  Session,  Washington,  1891. 


108     UNDERFLOW  AND  IRRIGATION  INVESTIGATION. 

seasons,  and  since  most  of  the  rainfall  comes  at  a  time 
when  the  conditions  are  best  suited  for  producing  a  very 
rapid  evaporation,  it  is  clear  that  the  total  percolation 
in  that  region,  under  the  climatic  conditions  now  pre- 
vailing, must  be  very  trifling  in  amount. 

The  facts  here  stated  would  seem  to  throw  great 
doubt  on  the  validity  of  Mr.  Hinton's  arguments  in 
favor  of  a  large  supply  of  "phreatic  water"  in  the 
arid  regions.  It  remains  now  to  examine  into  the 
facts  brought  forward  by  him  in  regard  to  the  actual 
boring  of  numerous  "  Artesian  wells,"  as  he  calls 
them,  in  the  district  investigated  by  him,  or  under  his 
direction. 

The  results  obtained  in  the  course  of  the  "  Artesian, 
Underflow,  and  Irrigation  Investigations,"  up  to  the 
time  of  the  publication  of  the  "  Progress  Eeport "  in 
1891,  are  thus  stated  by  Mr.  Hinton  :  *  "It  will  be  seen 
by  an  examination  of  the  maps  prepared  for  and  pub- 
lished by  the  Artesian  wells  investigation  report  that 
from  north  to  south  a  basin  or  basins  of  Artesian  water 
of  great  power  and  volume  have  been  struck  and  are 
now  operating,  through  1,400  wells  or  more,  on  an  area 
not  to  exceed  100  miles  in  width.  There  are  wells  on 
the  plains  and  in  the  foot-hills  east  and  west  of  the  belt 
defined,  but  they  have  distinct  hydrographic  and  topo- 
graphic features  of  their  own.  Within  the  developed 
Artesian  regions  it  will  be  found  that  the  deepest  and 
most  permanent  wells  have,  taking  topographical  '  dip  ' 
and  '  trend '  into  consideration,  an  almost  uniform 
depth  from  north  to  south,  a  considerable  sameness  of 
temperature,  volume,  pressure,  chemical  character,  and 

1  See  "  Progress  Report,"  Part  I.  p.  35. 


UNDERFLOW   AND  IRRIGATION  INVESTIGATION.      109 

flow.  This  argues  that  they  come  mainly  from  one 
general  source,  and  have  about  the  same  degree  of 
hydrostatic  pressure.  If  the  investigation  of  the  past 
year  had  accomplished  nothing  more  than  to  bring 
this  encouraging  series  of  facts  to  the  attention  of  the 
struggling  settlers,  and  of  all  those  interested  in  their 
maintenance  and  success,  that  would  alone  have  been 
worth  all  it  has  cost.  But  this  is  by  no  means  more 
than  the  beginning  of  a  remarkable  addition  to  our 
knowledge  of  physical  features  and  facts  relating  to 
our  semi-arid  and  arid  domain.  The  investigation  has 
opened  up  a  great  vista  of  economic  possibilities  and 
engineering  development.  The  engineer  and  the  ge- 
ologist engaged  in  the  work  are  confident  that  the 
source  of  supply  for  the  Artesian  wells  now  flowing 
will  mainly  be  found  in  the  drainage  of  our  continental 
range  —  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  same  observa- 
tion which  governed  their  opinion  of  the  Northwest 
holds  equally  good  for  similar  conclusions  as  to  the 
centre  and  the  Southwest,  as  far  at  least  as  concerns 
that  portion  north  of  the  Rio  Grande  boundary." 

Again,  Mr.  Hinton  remarks  as  follows  : l  "In  North 
Dakota  interest  is  now  centered  upon  the  prospect  of 
obtaining  more  deep  wells,  and  of  storing  water  from 
the  wells  sunk  in  the  glacial  drift  of  the  Red  River 
Basin.  Several  hundred  of  these  wells,  all  of  a  secon- 
dary character,  are  found  in  that  section.  Very  little 
artificial  application  of  water  is  necessary  for  the  secu- 
rity of  crops,  but  that  little  is  needed  very  badly,  and 
during  most  years.  Water  has  been  found  all  along 
the  line  of  the  Great  Northern  Railroad,  and  at  very 

1  Loc.  cit.,  p.  36. 


110       UNDERFLOW  FROM  THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAINS. 

moderate  depths  in  the  Milk  River  Valley.  There  is 
very  little  doubt  that  Artesian  water  to  a  considerable 
extent,  though  at  somewhat  great  depths,  may  be 
obtained  from  that  vast  reservoir,  the  Dakota  sand- 
stone, filled  as  it  has  been  for  unknown  cycles  from 
the  vast  precipitation  falling  on  the  Rocky  Mountains 
and  draining  through  the  upturned  edges  of  the  stratum 
into  the  water-conserving  rock  below." 

The  idea  of  an  "  underflow  "  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains toward  the  east  and  south  is  by  no  means  original 
with  Mr.  Hinton.  George  Catlin,  in  his  remarkable 
work,  "  The  Lifted  and  Subsided  Rocks  of  America," 
long  ago  advocated  something  similar,  although  his 
ideas  were  different  from  those  of  Mr.  Hinton  with 
reference  to  the  practical  use  of  these  "  submontagne 
rivers,"  as  he  called  them.  Mr.  Catlin  believed  that  they 
were  the  source  and  cause  of  the  Gulf  Stream  —  a  the- 
ory which  up  to  this  time  has  not  been  received  with 
much  favor  by  geologists  or  physical  geographers.1 

The  "Artesian  Wells  Investigation  Report,"  to  which 
reference  is  made  in  the  above  quotation  from  Mr.  Hin- 

i  "  The  vast  inclines  extending  off  and  into  the  plains  from  the  bases  of 
the  [Rocky]  mountains,  both  to  the  east  and  the  west,  and  at  their  axes 
several  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ocean,  and  from  which  (or 
through  which)  the  mountain  ridges  rise,  I  shall  here  assume  are  the  grad- 
ual elevations  of  the  sedimentary  system  (as  before  suggested),  caused  by 
the  successive  upheavals  passing  through  them,  lifting  them,  and  propping 
them  at  the  fractured  edges,  and  forming  vast  cellars  or  cisterns  beneath 
them,  through  which,  and  above  the  granite  surface,  the  sunken  waters 
flow.  ...  I  have  said  that  the  Gulf  Stream  was  caused  by  submontagne 
rivers  from  under  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Andes,  converging  in 
the  latitude  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  discharging  their  combined  waters 
into  that  estuary ;  and  pouring  through  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  taking  with 
them  the  waters  of  the  Rio  del  Norte  and  Mississippi,  they  debouch  with 
them  into  the  ocean  at  the  Cape  of  Florida,  and  there  become  the  Gulf 
Stream."  Loc.  cit.,  p.  26. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  INVESTIGATION  REPORT.       HI 

ton's  progress  report,  was  published  in  1890,  and  is 
called  by  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  "  a  preliminary 
investigation  made  to  determine  the  proper  location  for 
Artesian  wells  within  the  area  west  of  the  ninety- 
seventh  meridian,  and  east  of  the  foot-hills  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains."  *  It  is  prefaced  by  a  report  of  the 
Special  Agent  in  Charge,  Mr.  Hinton,  in  which  the  pos- 
sibilities of  Artesian  wells  in  the  arid  region  of  the 
United  States  are  set  forth  in  glowing  terms,  and  de- 
scriptions are  given  of  various  regions  in  Europe,  Asia, 
and  Africa,  where  irrigation  by  means  of  water  thus  ob- 
tained is  extensively  carried  on.  Mr.  Hinton's  report 
is  followed  by  a  large  number  of  special  reports,  espe- 
cially those  of  Mr.  E.  S.  Nettleton,  "  Supervisory  Engi- 
neer of  the  Irrigation  Survey,"  and  of  Professor  Robert 
Hay,  General  Field  Geologist,  and  of  Messrs.  Culver, 
Bailey,  Hicks,  and  Van  Diest,  as  well  as  other  reports 
made  to  the  special  agent  in  charge  by  the  division 
field  agents,  Messrs.  Underhill,  Updyke,  Coffin,  Gregory, 
Carpenter,  and  Roesler. 

The  principal  results  of  this  survey,  up  to  the  time 
of  the  publication  of  this  report,  are  thus  summed  up 
by  the  Supervisory  Engineer  :  "  (1)  The  existence  of  a 
large  Artesian  basin  in  the  Dakotas,  which  is  indicated 
by  the  number  of  flowing  wells  scattered  over  an  area 
of  about  12,000  square  miles.  (2)  The  presence  of  an 
abundant  supply  of  water  in  a  loose  sand  stratum  of 
great  thickness  and  subjected  to  great  pressure,  which  is 
fully  maintained  after  being  pierced  by  numerous  wells 
flowing  their  full  capacity  for  years.  (3)  The  probabil- 
ity of  an  extension  of  this  basin  to  westward  or  a  con- 

1  This  is  Executive  Document  No.  222,  51st  Congress,  1st  Session. 


112       ARTESIAN  WELLS  INVESTIGATION  REPORT. 

siderable  distance  from  the  James  River  Valley  devel- 
opments, and  having  similar  characteristics.  (4)  The 
probable  existence  of  an  Artesian  basin  in  Texas  similar 
to  that  in  the  Dakotas,  and  of  unknown  area,  but  lying 
at  a  greater  depth  from  the  surface.  (5)  The  existence 
of  several  other  Artesian  basins  in  other  parts  of  the 
country  examined,  which  have  similar  flows,  from  which 
water  is  obtained  in  sufficient  quantity  for  domestic  use, 
and,  in  some  instances,  for  the  irrigation  of  small  areas. 
(6)  The  existence  of  two  Artesian  basins  lying  in  the 
drift  where  flowing  water  for  domestic  use  and  for  irri- 
gation is  obtained  at  a  very  low  cost.  (7)  The  neces- 
sity of  irrigation  to  prevent  total  loss  of  crops,  at  times, 
and  for  their  full  development  nearly  every  year. 
(8)  The  existence  of  large  supplies  of  subterranean  wa- 
ters underlying  quite  generally  the  whole  territory 
examined.  (9)  The  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  methods  for  utilizing  the  Artesian 
well  and  underground  waters  for  irrigation  purposes. 

(10)  The  need  of  a  closer  and  more  extended  geological 
examination  to  designate,  as  near  as  possible,  where  it 
is  probable  that  water  may  or  may  not  be  obtained. 

(11)  The  necessity  of  verifying  by  test  experimental 
work  some  of  the  conclusions  of  the  geologists.  (12)  The 
necessity  of  investigating  the  subject  of  utilizing  the 
subterranean  waters  and  the  extent  of  country  which 
can  be  reclaimed  by  them  and  to  report  on  methods 
for  bringing  such  waters  to  the  surface  and  the  cost 
therefor." 

The  groups  of  Artesian  wells  in  the  region  examined, 
"whose  waters  are  largely  available  for  irrigation, 
being,  to  some  extent,  now  so  used  and  capable  of 


REPORT  OF   GENERAL  FIELD   GEOLOGIST.         113 

considerable  development  in  that  direction/'  are  geo- 
graphically located  as  follows  by  Mr.  Hay,  the  General 
Field  Geologist. 

(1)  The  wells  of  the  Red  River  Valley  in  North- 
eastern North  Dakota.  (2)  The  wells  of  the  James 
River  Valley  in  the  two  Dakotas  (North  and  South). 
(3)  The  wells  of  the  Yellowstone  Valley  at  Miles  City, 
Montana.  (4)  The  shallow  wells  in  the  drift  formation 
on  the  eastern  side  of  the  two  Dakotas.  (5)  The  wells 
of  Northern  Nebraska.  (6)  Four  groups  of  wells  in 
Southwestern  Kansas.  (7)  The  wells  of  the  La  Poudre, 
Denver,  and  Pueblo  basins  in  Colorado.  (8)  The  Fort 
Worth  and  Waco  groups  in  Texas.  (9)  The  wells  of 
New  Mexico.  (10)  The  wells  of  Wyoming.  Some  of 
the  details  in  regard  to  these  Artesian  well  districts, 
furnished  by  Mr.  Hay,  may  be  here  appended. 

The  most  important  of  the  groups  above  enumerated 
is  that  of  the  James  River  Valley,  which  covers  an  area 
of  20,000  square  miles,  with  about  150  wells.  These 
are  said  to  flow  with  considerable  pressure  (60  to  153 
pounds  to  the  square  inch),  and  with  considerable  volume 
of  water,  some  furnishing  over  1,000  and  one  nearly 
3,000  gallons  per  minute.  The  water  which  these  wells 
furnish  is  believed  to  come  from  the  sandstones  of  the 
Dakota  group,  belonging  to  the  Lower  Cretaceous.  The 
outcrop  of  this  group  on  the  sides  of  the  western  moun- 
tains is  said  to  be  "  several  thousand  feet  higher  than 
in  Middle  Dakota,"  and  as  this  sandstone  is  followed 
toward  the  east  it  is  covered  by  a  thickness  of  from 
1,000  to  2,000  feet  of  shales,  which  are  more  or  less 
impervious,  and  thus  seal  in  the  waters  at  the  low 
eastern  edge  of  the  Artesian  trough,  and  prevent  their 


114       ARTESIAN  WELLS  INVESTIGATION  REPORT. 

escape.  The  reason  why  this  sandstone  has  furnished 
no  Artesian  water  farther  west  than  the  James  River 
Valley  is  thought  to  be,  that  this  rock  is  covered  by  too 
great  a  thickness  of  later  deposits,  making  it  too  costly 
a  matter  to  reach  the  underlying  water-bearing  rock. 
The  existing  wells  of  this  group  are  said  to  have  their 
waters  "  highly  mineralized,"  but  no  analyses  are  given. 
It  is  thought,  however,  that  none  "  so  far  are  mineral- 
ized to  the  extent  that  they  would  injure  vegetation." 
On  the  western  side  of  the  Black  Hills,  in  Wyoming, 
the  Dakota  sandstone  yields  flowing  wells  of  salt  water, 
with  a  considerable  amount  of  oil,  natural  gas  being 
also  present. 

In  Southwestern  Kansas,  and  just  over  the  line  in 
Colorado,  in  the  Arkansas  Valley,  there  is  a  group  of 
Artesian  wells,  the  water  of  which  is  furnished  by  the 
Dakota  sandstone,  at  a  depth  of  less  than  300  feet. 
There  are,  however,  reasons  for  believing  that  these 
wells  do  not  get  their  supply  of  water  from  the  exposure 
of  this  rock  in  the  foot-hills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
One  reason  given  for  this  is,  that  the  Dakota  sand- 
stone, in  that  part  of  the  foot-hills  corresponding  in  lati- 
tude with  Southern  Nebraska  and  part  of  Kansas,  are 
more  or  less  metamorphosed  into  quartzite,  thus  losing 
their  permeable  quality  to  a  considerable  extent.  The 
source  of  the  water  of  these  wells  is,  therefore,  sup- 
posed to  be  "  local  breaks  in  the  superincumbent  strata 
not  far  to  the  west,  or  even  in  outcrop  which  occur 
some  miles  to  the  south."  The  wells  in  Kansas  to 
which  reference  is  here  made,  which  are  near  Coolidge, 
do  not  have  sufficient  pressure  to  lift  the  water  more 
than  twenty  or  thirty  feet,  the  neighboring  high  ground 


REPORT  OF   GENERAL  FIELD  GEOLOGIST.         115 

being  200  feet  above  them  ;  and  at  Syracuse,  sixteen 
miles  south  of  Coolidge,  the  water  did  not  rise  to  the 
surface.  The  facts  seem  to  indicate,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  field  geologists,  that  Northern  Nebraska  may  have 
an  extension  of  Artesian  conditions  from  Southern 
Dakota,  and  be  a  part  of  the  James  River  district,  the 
source  of  the  water  being  the  southeast  flank  of  the 
Black  Hills,  where  there  has  been  no  metamorphism 
of  the  sandstone.  For  the  rest  of  Nebraska,  as  also 
Western  Kansas,  and  part  of  Colorado,  the  Dakota 
sandstone  is  not  expected  to  fnrnish  Artesian  water, 
except  in  limited  areas  where  the  local  conditions 
may  chance  to  be  favorable,  as  near  Coolidge. 

The  shallow  wells  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  two 
Dakotas  get  their  water  from  the  so-called  "glacial 
drift,"  a  sheet  of  which,  varying  in  thickness  from 
fifteen  to  two  hundred  feet,  is  spread  over  a  wide 
extent  of  country  east  of  the  Missouri,  extending  even 
into  Iowa.1  Where  the  gravelly  beds  of  this  formation 
are  sufficiently  thick  and  intercalated  with  strata  of 
clay,  Artesian  conditions  are  likely  to  be  present ;  the 
flow  of  water  being,  however,  not  very  abundant,  but 
in  quality  much  superior  to  that  obtained  from  the 
deep  wells. 

The  wells  of  the  Denver  basin,  in  most  cases,  are 
supplied  with  water  from  rocks  of  Tertiary  age  :  a 
few  only  penetrate  the  Laramie  or  higher  Cretaceous 
beds.  The  conditions  here  are  favorable  for  an  Arte- 
sian flow,  since  the  edges  of  the  upturned  formations 
at  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  are  near  at  hand. 
The  wells  in  and  around  the  city  of  Denver  are  said  to 

1  See  ante,  pp.  73-76. 


116      ARTESIAN  WELLS  INVESTIGATION  REPORT. 

be  300  or  more  in  number,  and  the  head  of  water  to 
have  become  so  reduced  that  few  of  them  are  now  flow- 
ing ;  "  but  the  pumps  which  have  succeeded  the  nat- 
ural flow  have  given  no  indication  of  reduction  in  the 
quantity  of  the  water."  The  regions  along  the  eastern 
base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  which  the  Platte, 
Fountain,  and  Arkansas  debouch  upon  the  Plains,  is 
chiefly  watered  by  irrigation  canals  from  those  rivers, 
Artesian  water  being  there  of  only  secondary  impor- 
tance. Conditions  similar  to  those  in  Colorado  as 
respects  the  procuring  of  Artesian  water  are  presumed 
to  exist  farther  south,  in  New  Mexico,  since  the  geo- 
logical conditions  continue  essentially  the  same  all 
along  the  base  of  the  range,  and  the  rainfall  is  not 
less  there  than  it  is  in  the  same  longitude  farther 
north.  At  the  time  the  report  which  is  here  under 
discussion  was  prepared,  little  seems  to  have  been 
known  with  regard  to  Artesian  water  in  New  Mexico.1 
There  is  a  group  of  wells  at  Fort  Worth,  in  Texas, 
where  the  same  thing  has  occurred  as  at  Denver.  Out 
of  240  wells  which  have  been  bored,  only  three  or  four 
are  now  flowing. 

The  wells  of  Southwestern  Kansas,  northeast  of 
Meade  Centre,  are  said  to  be  about  eighty  in  num- 
ber, their  flow  varying  from  two  or  three  gallons  per 
minute  to  between  sixty  and  seventy.  The  origin  of 
the  water  in  these  wells  is  the  Tertiary  grit,  and  their 
number  is  said  to  have  increased  during  the  year 
which  elapsed  after  the  preparation  of  this  report, 
while  the  flow  of  water  had  not  diminished. 

1  In  the  Census  Bulletin,  No.  193,  "  Artesian  Wells  for  Irrigation," 
dated  June  11,  1892,  no  facts  are  given  indicating  the  existence  of 
Artesian  water  of  any  importance  in  this  geological  position. 


CONCLUSIONS  OF  CHIEF  ENGINEER.      117 

The  group  of  wells  in  the  Yellowstone  Valley,  at 
Miles  City,  Montana,  is  briefly  described  by  Professor 
Hay.  They  are  from  twenty  to  thirty  in  number, 
their  flow  being  from  one  to  twenty  gallons  per  min- 
ute, and  they  are  utilized  for  the  irrigation  of  gardens 
and  for  domestic  purposes.  These  wells  obtain  their 
water  from  the  Laramie  group,  and  it  is  thought  that 
over  the  extensive  area  where  this  formation  is  devel- 
oped to  a  very  considerable  thickness,  and  uplifted 
against  the  mountains,  it  may  become  an  important 
source  of  water-supply.1 

Accompanying  Mr.  Hinton's  Report  for  1890,  and 
forming  the  second  part  of  the  Progress  Report  of  the 
Artesian  and  Underflow  Investigation,  there  is  a  special 
report  by  Mr.  Nettleton,  the  Chief  Engineer  of  the 
work,  covering  a  large  section  of  the  central  division 
of  the  Great  Plains,  embracing  considerable  portions  of 
Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Colorado.  This  report  is  accom- 
panied by  maps  and  profiles,  and  a  considerable  amount 
of  statistical  information,  in  tabular  form,  with  regard 
to  wells  examined  in  detail  along  certain  surveyed  lines. 
It  is  from  these  statistics,  apparently,  that  Mr.  Hinton 
feels  himself  justified  in  drawing  the  conclusion  that 
"  there  is  a  large  region  south  from  the  Niobrara  to 
the  Republican  Fork  in  Northern  Kansas  wherein  the 
phreatic  waters  are  known  to  be  abundant  and  their 
plane  quite  near  the  surface.  A  regular  fall  to  the  east- 
ward will  enable  the  distribution  of  water  to  be  made 
with  comparative  ease  in  that  direction.  No  great 

1  Later  information  in  regard  to  the  wells  at  Miles  City  is  given  in 
Mr.  Hinton's  Progress  Report  for  1890,  Part  I.  (1891),  p.  152.  They  are 
said  to  be  from  450  to  500  feet  deep,  the  water  rising  from  twelve  to 
eighteen  feet  above  the  level  of  the  valley. 


118  POSITION  OF  LINES  SURVEYED. 

amount  of  mechanical  power  will  be  required  to  lift 
such  phreatic  waters  to  points  where  they  may  be  more 
readily  distributed.  A  very  remarkable  development  is 
sure  to  be  seen  within  the  next  year  or  two  in  the  basin 
formed  by  the  Republican,  the  Frenchman,  and  the 
tributaries  of  the  North  and  South  Platte."  1 

The  geographical  position  of  the  lines  surveyed  by 
Mr.  Nettleton,  as  stated  above,  may  be  learned  from 
the  following  statement :  (1)  Across  the  South  Platte, 
at  Big  Spring,  Nebraska,  to  a  point  near  the  head  of 
Frenchman  River,  forty-eight  miles.  (2)  Across  the 
Platte,  Nebraska,  from  the  South  Loup  River  to  Med- 
icine Creek,  fifty-five  miles.  (3)  Across  the  South 
Platte,  at  Lexington,  Nebraska,  from  the  South  Loup 
River  to  the  Republican  River,  seventy  miles.  (4)  Across 
the  Platte  River,  at  Grand  Island,  Nebraska,  from  the 
South  Loup  River  to  the  Republican  River,  seventy- 
seven  miles.  (5)  Across  the  Arkansas  River,  at  Great 
Bend,  Kansas,  from  Smoky  Hill  River  to  a  point  near 
luka,  Kansas,  seventy-five  miles.  (6)  Across  the  Ar- 
kansas River,  at  Dodge  City,  from  Pawnee  Fork  to 
Crooked  Creek,  seventy-five  miles.  (7)  Across  the  Ar- 
kansas River,  at  Garden  City,  Kansas,  from  Ladder 
Creek  to  Loco,  Kansas,  eighty-five  miles.  (8)  On  the 
hundredth  meridian,  from  Norton,  Kansas,  one  hundred 
and  thirty  miles. 

An  examination  of  the  tables  of  statistical  informa- 
tion which  accompany  the  sections  made  along  the 
lines  thus  located  reveals  the  following  facts:  (1)  The 
depth  of  the  wells  varies  from  12  to  1,145  feet.  (2)  In 

1  Hinton's  Progress  Report  for  1890,  Part  I.  p.  18. 


STATISTICS  OF  WELLS  EXAMINED.  119 

102  cases  (out  of  188)  the  water  did  not  rise  at  all  in 
the  bore-hole ;  very  rarely  did  it  rise  more  than  a  few 
feet,  and  in  only  one  well  to  the  surface.  (3)  From 
most  of  these  wells  the  water  is  raised  by  means  of  a 
windmill,  but  sometimes  by  a  hand-pump,  and  in  two 
or  three  cases  by  steam.  (4)  In  by  far  the  larger 
number  of  these  wells  the  water  is  used  for  stock  or 
for  household  purposes ;  in  one  case  only  for  irriga- 
tion, and  in  two  for  locomotives.1  (5)  The  supply  of 
water  varies  from  less  than  a  hundred  to  several 
thousand  gallons  per  day,  but  in  much  the  larger 
number  of  cases  the  quantity  pumped  is  between  one 
and  three  thousand  gallons.  (6)  In  regard  to  almost 
all  these  wells  the  geological  information  given  is  very 
meagre :  by  far  the  larger  number  are  said  to  have 
been  sunk  in  "  sand  "  or  "  sandy  clay  "  ;  in  some  cases 
the  well  ends  in  gravel,  in  other  cases  the  absence  of 
gravel  is  specially  noted  ;  in  the  few  instances  in  which 
rock  is  said  to  have  been  passed  through  in  the  boring 
no  clue  is  given  as  to  its  geological  age. 

The  facts  stated  above  seem  clearly  to  indicate 
that  the  water  from  these  wells  belongs  to  no  general 
"  underflow  "  system  :  it  comes  from  the  superficial 
detrital  material  of  Tertiary  or  Post-Tertiary  age,  this 
material  being  of  very  considerable,  but  also  very  irreg- 
ular, thickness,  while  to  draw  the  line  which  divides 
the  two  systems  from  each  other  is  a  matter  of  great 
difficulty,  and  probably  in  most  cases  an  entire  impos- 
sibility. An  ideal  section  given  by  Mr.  Nettleton  in 
illustration  of  the  geological  conditions  prevailing  in 

1  These  wells  are  of  large  bore.  They  are  on  the  line  of  a  railroad, 
and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  a  river. 


120  CHARACTER  OF  WELLS  EXAMINED. 

the  region  in  question  seems  to  be  a  fair  representa- 
tion of  the  general  character  of  the  formations  inter- 
sected by  these  wells.  It  represents  a  thick  body  of 
clay  traversed  by  beds  of  sand,  very  irregular  in  their 
development  and  position  with  reference  to  a  horizontal 
plane,  and  occasionally  inosculating  with  each  other. 
In  the  masses  of  sand  having  a  considerable  thickness 
and  lying  obliquely  in  the  clay,  we  have  the  necessary 
conditions  for  a  supply  of  water,  which  may  rise  to 
some  little  height  above  the  bottom  of  the  bore-hole, 
but  which  cannot  (unless  exceptionally)  be  really  Arte- 
sian. In  a  region  of  large  rainfall  such  a  source  of 
supply  would  be  highly  satisfactory  for  ordinary  domes- 
tic purposes,  and  such  is  really  the  character  of  the 
water-supply  over  a  large  part  of  the  United  States  — 
as,  for  instance,  in  New  England  —  away  from  the 
large  cities,  which  have  peculiar  needs,  resulting  from 
the  concentration  of  a  large  population  within  a  com- 
paratively small  area. 

The  fact  that  the  wells  have  to  be  sunk  to  a  con- 
siderable depth  in  the  region  here  under  discussion 
depends  on  the  smallness  of  the  rainfall.  Where  the 
precipitation  is  overabundant  the  line  of  saturation 
lies  near  the  surface,  sinking  a  little  during  the  drier 
part  of  the  year,  but  in  a  region  covered  by  thick 
deposits  of  permeable  material  never  reaching  any 
great  depth.  Over  areas  similarly  conditioned,  but 
less  generously  supplied  with  rain,  the  water-level 
stands  lower  and  must  be  reached  by  deeper  wells, 
which  it  may  be  necessary  to  sink  into  the  solid  rock, 
in  which  case,  if  the  rock  be  permeable,  a  permanent 
supply  of  water  may  be  secured  which  can  be  exten- 


CONDITION  OF  WATER-SUPPLY.  121 

sively  drawn  upon.1  In  regions  where  the  precipitation 
is  very  small,  and  the  evaporation  proportionally  large, 
as  is  the  case  in  Western  Nebraska  and  the  arid  or 
semi-arid  region  in  general,  the  superficial  detritus  will 
be  water-bearing  only  under  exceptionally  favorable 
conditions,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  permanent  streams.  The  plane  of  saturation  will 
be  at  a  very  considerable  depth,  and  the  supply  of 
water  limited  in  quantity. 

The  facts  revealed  in  the  sections  and  the  accom- 
panying tabular  statements,  of  which  a  synopsis  has 
been  given  above,  are  such  as  would  be  expected  to 
result  from  the  climatic  and  geological  conditions 
existing  in  this  region.  Water  is  obtained  in  various 
localities  in  moderate  quantity,  but  usually  only  at  a 
very  considerable  depth,  and  that  this  supply  would 
hold  out  if  drawn  upon  to  a  considerable  extent  is 
extremely  doubtful.  Indeed,  it  seems  most  probable 
that  in  this  region  of  present  small  rainfall  the  inhab- 
itants are  utilizing  the  water  stored  beneath  the  ground 
at  a  former  period,  when  the  precipitation  was  larger 
than  it  now  is.  There  is  abundant  evidence  to  sub- 
stantiate the  statement  that  within  a  comparatively 
recent  period  —  from  the  geological  point  of  view,  very 
recent  —  the  climate  of  this  part  of  the  country  has 
become  decidedly  drier  than  it  formerly  was.2  At  all 

1  Of  this  character  was,  until  within  a  few  years,  the  water-supply  of 
a  large  part  of  the  most  densely  populated  region  of  England,  the  source 
of  the  water  being  the  sandstones  of  the  Permian  and  Triassic  groups, 
which  formations  cover  so  large  an  area  in  that  country.     See  ante, 
pp.  50-52. 

2  This  change  in  the  climate  of  the  region  in  question  is  by  no  means 
a  condition  of  things  peculiar  to  this  part  of  the  country.     There  is 
abundant  evidence  that  a  change  of  this  kind  has  taken  place  all  over 


122  FINAL  IRRIGATION  REPORT. 

events,  it  can  be  truthfully  stated  that  any  such 
"  underflow  "  as  that  supposed  by  Mr.  Hinton  and  his 
assistants  to  have  been  shown  to  exist  over  a  region 
lying  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  east  of  the  base  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  is  a  physical  impossibility.  The  idea 
has  its  root  in  the  intense  desire  prevailing  at  the  West 
to  make  it  appear  that  natural  defects  of  that  part  of 
the  country  are  not  really  defects,  because  they  can  be 
so  easily  remedied  by  a  sufficient  expenditure  of  money 
on  the  part  of  the  general  government.1 

In  1892  another  report  on  irrigation  was  published, 
which,  in  the  letter  of  transinittal  of  the  Secretary  of 
Agriculture  by  which  it  is  accompanied,  is  called  the 
"  final  report  of  the  artesian  and  underflow  investi- 
gation, and  of  the  irrigation  inquiry."  It  is  in  four 
volumes,  the  general  scope  and  authorship  of  each  of 
which  are  indicated  in  the  note  below.2 

the  world,  the  evidences  of  desiccation  in  later  geological  times  present- 
ing themselves  in  abundance  in  the  Old  World  as  well  as  in  the  New. 
In  an  article  entitled  "  Whence  comes  the  Water  of  the  Oases  of  the 
Sahara  ?  "  by  G.  Rohlfs,  published  in  the  "  Zeitschrift  der  Gesellschaft 
fur  Erdkunde  "  (Band  XXV HI.,  1893,  pp.  296-305),  this  distinguished 
African  explorer,  after  stating  various  rather  puzzling  facts  in  regard  to 
the  distribution  of  water  in  the  Sahara,  arrives  at  the  conclusion  that 
these  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  admitting  that  the  rainfall  of  that 
region  is  in  reality  much  larger  than  has  generally  been  supposed.  The 
present  writer  has  been  led  by  long  study  of  this  subject  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  this  larger  rainfall  is  something  which  cannot  be  denied,  but 
that  it  is  an  event  which  has  to  do  with  the  past,  and  not  with  the  present 
epoch.  See  the  author's  "  Climatic  Changes  of  Later  Geological  Times," 
pp.  101-154. 

1  See  Appendix  B,  where  this  matter  will  be  brought  up  for  further 
discussion. 

2  This  report  constitutes  Executive  Document  41,  52d  Congress,  1st 
Session,  and   bears  the  date  of   1892.     It  is  in  four  parts,  numbered 
Part  I.  to  Part  IV.,  each  paged  separately.     The  first  of  these  has,  as  a 
special  title,  "A  Report  on  Irrigation  and  the  Cultivation  of  the  Soil 
thereby,  with  Physical  Data,  Conditions,  and  Progress,  within  the  United 


WHAT   HAS  BEEN   ACCOMPLISHED.  123 

The  introductory  volume,  by  Mr.  Hinton,  the  Special 
Agent  in  charge,  is  largely  occupied  by  general  consid- 
erations in  regard  to  the  subject  of  irrigation,  not  only 
in  the  United  States,  but  all  over  the  world.  The  great 
importance  of  the  irrigation  investigation  carried  on 
under  the  direction  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
is  insisted  on,  and  it  is  claimed  that  highly  valuable 
results  have  already  been  achieved.  "  The  existence 
of  underflow  or  phreatic  waters  of  varying  depths  and 
quantities  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
great  plains  region  has  been  in  a  large  degree  tenta- 
tively established  by  its  work,  and  that  this  fact  has 
given  great  encouragement  to  the  pioneer  farmers 
and  communities  in  western  Kansas.  Encouragement 
has  also  been  given,  by  the  large  work  done  during  the 
past  twenty-one  months,  to  agricultural  enterprise  and 
industry  in  southwest  Colorado,  in  eastern  New  Mexico, 
and  throughout  Texas  west  of  the  ninety-seventh  me- 
ridian. The  practical  work  of  construction  and  culti- 
vation which  is  in  progress  has  resulted  in  great  part 
from  the  impetus  given  to  energy  and  enterprise  by 

States  for  1891,  accompanied  by  Maps,  Illustrations,  and  Papers,  by 
Richard  J.  Hinton,  Special  Agent  in  Charge."  The  second  is  called  a 
"  Final  Report  of  the  Chief  Engineer  Edwin  S.  Nettleton,  C.  E.,  to  the 
Secretary  of  Agriculture,  with  accompanying  Maps,  Profiles,  Diagrams, 
and  Additional  Papers."  The  third  is  entitled  "  Final  Geological  Reports 
of  the  Artesian  and  Underflow  Investigation,  between  the  Ninety-seventh 
Meridian  of  Longitude  and  the  Foothills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  made 
by  Prof.  Robert  Hay,  F.  G.  S.  A.,  Chief  Geologist."  The  fourth  is  the 
"  Final  Report  of  the  Mid-Plains  Division  of  the  Artesian  and  Underflow 
Investigation  between  the  Ninety-seventh  Meridian  of  Longitude  west 
of  Greenwich  and  the  Foothills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  by  Special 
Agent  S.  W.  Gregory,  of  Garden  City,  Kansas,  and  a  Special  Report  on 
certain  Artesian  Conditions  in  the  State  of  South  Dakota,  by  Fred.  F.  B. 
Coffin,  Engineer  for  South  Dakota." 


124          INCREASE  OF  POPULATION 

the  same  influence  under  the  small  appropriation  made 
by  the  Fifty-first  Congress." 

The  year  1891  is  said  in  this  report  to  have  been 
marked  by  great  activity  in  the  direction  of  irrigation 
enterprises  on  a  large  scale,  and  in  the  development,  by 
means  of  irrigation,  of  numerous  small  localities  west 
of  the  one  hundredth  meridian.  In  the  region  between 
the  ninety-seventh  meridian  and  the  foothills  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  almost  from  north  to  south,  there 
is  said  to  have  been  a  decided  growth  of  settlements 
and  a  marked  increase  of  cultivation.  The  increase 
of  population  through  the  region  of  Wyoming  and 
Southern  Idaho,  up  the  valley  of  the  Yellowstone,  and 
over  the  Rocky  Mountains  into  the  Cascade  Range,  is 
said  to  have  been  "not  large,  but  steady  in  character," 
while  new  and  extensive  areas  that  will  soon  invite 
occupation  are  to  be  found  in  Southern  Idaho,  Eastern 
Washington,  and  Oregon,  as  well  as  in  Northern  and 
Central  Montana,  both  east  and  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  Over  the  more  southern  area  of  the  arid 
region  the  movement  of  population  is  admitted  to  be 
slower. 

This  question  of  the  rapidity  of  increase  of  the  pop- 
ulation in  the  arid  region  will  have  had  more  light 
thrown  on  it  after  the  next  census  has  been  taken. 
The  tabular  statements  given  in  the  preceding  pages  of 
the  present  volume  show  clearly  enough  that  during  the 
interval  which  elapsed  between  the  taking  of  the  cen- 
suses of  1880  and  1890  the  growth  of  the  States  and 
Territories  in  which  the  water-supply  is  scanty  was  ex- 
tremely small,  a  density  of  population  as  great  as  two 
to  the  square  mile  not  having  been  reached  at  the  time 


NOT  SUSTAINED  BY  FACTS.  125 

of  taking  the  last  census  either  in  the  Plateau  or  the 
Rocky  Mountain  subdivision,1  which  together  have  28.6 
per  cent  of  the  area  of  the  country,  and  in  1890  had 
only  1.8  per  cent  of  its  population. 

The  figures  given  in  the  volume  under  consideration, 
showing  the  number  of  acres  irrigated  and  under  cul- 
tivation over  the  whole  of  that  part  of  the  United 
States  lying  west  of  the  ninety-seventh  meridian, 
indicate  only  a  trifling  change  as  having  taken  place 
between  1890  and  1891 :  in  the  former  year  7,577,600 
acres  are  reported  as  having  been  irrigated  and  culti- 
vated ;  in  1891,  8,026,526  acres.2  If  the  irrigation  of 
seven  and  a  half  millions  of  acres  had  been  attended 
with  so  small  an  increase  of  population  as  that  which 
had  manifested  itself  up  to  the  year  1890,  it  is  not 
likely  that  a  further  development  of  the  irrigated  area 
to  the  amount  of  less  than  half  a  million  of  acres  will 
have  produced  any  considerable  change  in  respect  to 
the  density  of  the  population.3 

A  most  extraordinary  misconception  of  climatic  and 

1  See  ante,  pp.  28  and  89. 

2  See  farther  on,  for  additional  data,  from  "  Extra  Census  Bulletin," 
No.  23,  published  September  9,  1892. 

8  The  tendency  to  exaggeration  in  all  these  irrigation  reports  is 
well  illustrated  by  what  is  said  of  Arizona,  a  Territory  having,  in  1890, 
59,691  inhabitants  (0.4  to  the  square  mile).  In  regard  to  this  Territory 
it  is  said  that  "  the  successful  boring  of  Artesian  wells  in  Arizona  is  of 
considerable  importance,  and  bids  fair  for  future  development  in  this 
important  direction.  There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  Arizona  has  a 
large  supply  of  phreatic  waters,  with  at  least  a  negative  Artesian  charac- 
ter-pressure sufficient  to  rise  in  the  bore  if  not  to  overflow  at  the  surface." 
The  statistics  furnished,  however,  show  that  the  increase  in  the  area 
irrigated  and  under  cultivation  from  1890  to  1891  was  only  4,900  acres : 
in  the  former  year,  according  to  the  Census  Reports,  on  one  tenth  of  one 
per  cent  of  the  whole  area  of  this  Territory  only  were  crops  raised  by 
irrigation. 


126  CONTROLLING  THE  WATER-SUPPLY. 

topographical  conditions  is  exhibited  in  Mr.  Hinton's 
remarks  in  the  volume  under  consideration  having  ref- 
erence to  the  "  controlling  of  the  continental  water- 
supply  "  by  means  of  government  reservations.  What 
is  here  contemplated  is  thus  stated :  "  Another  step 
in  the  conservation  of  water  within  this  region  has 
been  the  passage  of  the  act  passed  by  the  last  Con- 
gress authorizing  the  President  to  set  aside  by  procla- 
mation any  portion  of  the  public  domains  as  forest 
reservations  as  may  be  desired.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
this  measure  will  be  so  administered  as  to  include  the 
sources  of  all  interstate  waters.  The  need  of  such 
reservation  will  become  at  once  apparent  to  any  one 
who  will  examine  a  proper  map  with  critical  eyes.  It 
will  be  seen  that  the  controlling  power  over  a  conti- 
nental water  supply  is  held  both  geographically  and 
hydrographically  by  the  minority  in  physical  area,  civic 
organization,  and  population.  Three  States,  embraced 
within  the  area  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  holds  the 
sources  of  at  least  60  per  cent  of  the  western  waters  of 
the  Mississippi  system,  and  at  least  90  per  cent  of  all 
the  flowing  streams  west  of  the  one  hundredth  me- 
ridian. It  is  a  subject  of  profound  interest,  and  one 
that  must  command  the  attention  of  legislators,  state 
and  national/' l 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  that  any  statement 
connected  with  questions  of  geography  or  climatology 
could  be  made  having  a  less  substantial  basis  of  truth 
than  the  above.  The  three  States  "  embraced  within 
the  area  of  the  Rocky  Mountains"  must  necessarily 
be  Montana,  Wyoming,  and  Colorado,  through  which 

1  Loc.  cit.,  p.  17. 


THE  CONTINENTAL   WATER-SUPPLY.  127 

passes  the  "  Continental  Divide,"  or  the  watershed 
which  separates  the  sources  of  the  streams  flowing  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  from  those  reaching  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  There  can  be  no  other  "continental  water- 
supply  "  intended  here  than  that  which  heads  in  the 
streams  which  run  from  this  watershed  east  and  west 
within  the  limits  of  these  three  States.  Of  this  area 
east  of  the  divide  almost  the  whole  is  occupied  by  the 
basin  of  the  Missouri  and  its  tributaries ;  that  to  the 
west  belongs  to  the  Columbia  and  the  Colorado.  Since 
only  a  very  small  part  of  the  basin  of  the  Columbia  is 
included  within  the  limits  of  British  America,  (this 
division  of  the  continent  having  about  the  same  area 
as  that  of  the  United  States,  including  in  the  latter 
half  a  million  of  square  miles  widely  separated  from 
the  rest  of  this  country,  and  entirely  enclosed  within 
British  territory,)  and  since  no  part  of  the  Colorado 
basin  has  any  connection  with  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  (which  together  have  an  area  equal  to  about 
one  third  that  of  the  United  States  proper,)  it  is 
clear  that  by  the  term  "  Continental,"  as  here  used  by 
Mr.  Hinton,  is  meant  that  part  of  this  continent  which 
is  drained  by  the  Missouri,  the  Columbia,  and  the 
Colorado,  in  all  a  little  more  than  1,100,000  square 
miles,  or  about  one  third  of  the  United  States,  and 
approximately  one  eighth  of  the  continent  of  North 
America ;  that  is  to  say,  the  States  of  Montana, 
Wyoming,  and  Colorado  have  within  their  borders 
the  sources  of  streams  draining  approximately  one 
eighth  of  this  continent,  and  one  third  of  the  United 
States. 

The  amount  or  volume  of  the  drainage  of  any  region 


128  WHAT  IS  MEANT   BY   CONTROLLING 

is  dependent  not  only  on  the  area  of  the  drainage  basin, 
but  also  primarily  on  the  amount  of  the  rainfall,  while 
evaporation  and  percolation  are  also  important  factors. 
Thus,  the  Ohio,  with  a  drainage  area  of  214,000  square 
miles,  discharges  annually  into  the  Mississippi  about 
one  fifth  more  water  than  the  Missouri,  which  drains 
518,000  square  miles,  while  the  St.  Francis  River, 
draining  only  10,500  square  miles,  discharges  into  the 
Mississippi  considerable  more  than  both  the  Ohio  and 
Missouri  together.1 

After  these  preliminary  remarks  with  reference  to 
the  extent  of  the  continental  area  drained  by  waters 
heading  in  the  Eocky  Mountains,  the  much  more  im- 
portant question  comes  up  for  consideration  as  to  how 
a  "  controlling  power  "  is  to  be  exerted  by  the  general 
government  over  this  region,  and  what  the  nature  of 
this  power  or  influence  may  be. 

The  first  thought  in  regard  to  this  question  would 
naturally  be,  that  the  rivers  which  head  in  the  region 
were  to  be  "  controlled "  by  being  dammed,  so  that 

1  These  statements  in  regard  to  the  size  of  the  drainage  areas  and 
the  volumes  of  discharge  of  the  streams  mentioned  are  taken  from  the 
already  cited  work  of  Messrs.  Humphreys  and  Abbot,  where  it  is  said,  in 
reference  to  a  table  of  annual  downfall  drainage  :  "  This  table,  taken  in 
connection  with  a  map  of  the  region,  shows  that  neither  the  size  of  its 
basin  nor  the  length  of  its  course  is  any  criterion  of  the  hydrographic 
importance  of  a  tributary  stream."  There  is  no  other  source  of  infor- 
mation than  this  volume  with  regard  to  the  discharge  of  the  Mississippi 
and  its  various  affluents,  and  these  figures  are,  of  course,  only  approxi- 
mate, since  only  observations  continued  for  a  long  series  of  years  could 
furnish  entirely  satisfactory  results  in  such  a  complicated  investigation. 
The  areas  of  the  different  basins  might  now  be  more  accurately  com- 
piled than  they  could  be  at  the  time  this  work  was  published ;  but  such 
later  results  would  not  differ  materially  from  those  furnished  by  Messrs. 
Humphreys  and  Abbot,  and  such  differences  as  might  be  found  would 
not  be  large  enough  to  be  of  any  practical  importance  in  reference  to  the 
question  here  under  discussion. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  WATER-SUPPLY.  129 

their  waters  could  be  accumulated  in  reservoirs,  and 
thus  made  available  for  use  in  irrigation,  or  in  such 
other  way  as  might  be  desirable.  Of  plans  and  prepa- 
rations for  this  kind  of  work,  and  of  the  enormous 
expense  by  which  it  would  be  attended,  as  well  as  of 
the  other  difficulties  which  would  be  encountered  in 
the  attempt  to  carry  out  such  a  project,  notice  has 
already  been  taken.1  This,  however,  cannot  be  the 
kind  of  "  influence "  intended  by  Mr.  Hinton,  for 
any  such  enterprises,  even  if  successfully  carried  out, 
would  only  "  control  the  water-supply,"  and  that  to  a 
limited  extent,  within  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
locality  where  the  work  was  done.  This  could  by  no 
means  be  designated  as  "  controlling  the  Continental 
water-supply." 

There  remains,  then,  only  the  conjecture  that  it 
was  assumed  to  be  in  the  power  of  the  government 
to  influence  the  climate  in  some  way,  and  that  any 
such  influence  exerted  at  the  heads  of  the  streams  of 
any  country  would  have  some  special  value  which 
it  would  not  have  lower  down  in  their  courses.  This 
is  not  a  new  idea,  and  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  this  is  what  was  intended  by  Mr.  Hinton,  since 
it  has  already  been  repeatedly  suggested  in  other 
parts  of  the  country,  and  even  acted  on,  although 

i  See  ante,  pp.  29-33.  Since  those  pages  were  written  some  of  these 
difficulties  have  been  practically  illustrated  by  the  giving  way  of  one  of 
the  dams  constructed  in  Idaho  for  irrigational  purposes,  in  consequence 
of  the  sudden  melting  of  snow  in  the  mountains  coupled  with  heavy 
rains.  The  same  thing  has  happened  more  than  once  before  in  the  arid 
region,  as  well  as  in  the  Eastern  States,  and  even  in  England,  sometimes 
as  the  result  of  a  "  cloud-burst,"  or  of  a  long-continued  heavy  fall  of 
rain,  but  more  often  in  consequence  of  ignorance  or  carelessness  in 
building  or  watching  these  dangerous  structures. 


130     EFFECT  OF  REMOVING  THE  FORESTS. 

only  to  a  very  limited  extent.  Thus  it  has  been 
frequently  suggested  that  the  sources  of  the  Hudson 
River  should  be  "  protected/'  and  something  has 
already  been  done  in  New  York  with  this  end  in  view 
by  a  State  reservation  of  certain  forested  tracts  in 
the  Adirondack  Mountains.  If,  therefore,  "  protection  " 
or  "  influence "  has  any  definite  meaning  in  this  con- 
nection, it  must  be  putting  a  stop  to  the  destruction  of 
the  existing  forests,  or  increasing  their  extent  or 
density. 

In  a  mountainous  region  —  like  the  Appalachian, 
for  instance  —  where  the  ranges  do  not  rise  to  the 
snow-line,  and  where,  as  a  rule,  they  are  naturally 
densely  covered  by  forests,  it  does  do  much  toward 
retaining  unimpaired  the  beauty  of  the  landscape 
to  allow  the  trees  to  remain  untouched  by  the  wood- 
man's axe ;  for  after  hill  and  valley  have  had  their 
natural  arboreal  growth  removed,  not  only  is  most  of 
the  attractiveness  of  the  scenery  gone,  but  a  posi- 
tive element  of  ugliness  is  introduced  in  the  form  of 
blackened  stumps,  which  only  after  many  years  have 
passed  become  partially  concealed  by  the  undergrowth. 
In  a  well-watered  region  a  second  growth  of  forest 
trees  gradually  takes  the  place  of  the  original  arbo- 
real covering  of  the  surface,  but  this,  so  far  as  the 
present  writer's  observations  go  —  in  a  temperate  cli- 
mate, at  least  —  is  never  so  beautiful  as  the  nat- 
ural growth.  In  a  region  of  small  precipitation,  the 
renewal  of  the  forest  goes  on  with  a  proportionally 
less  rapidity,  or,  as  appears  to  be  the  case  in  that 
part  of  this  country  which  is  least  favored  by  rain- 
fall, so  slowly  as  to  be  quite  imperceptible. 


NECESSITY   OF  REMOVING  THE  FORESTS.         131 

But  the  land  cannot  be  settled  and  cultivated 
without  cutting  down  the  forests,  neither  is  it  safe 
to  leave  any  part  of  the  original  arboreal  growth 
standing  in  an  inhabited  region,  since  the  trees  which 
have  grown  naturally  in  the  midst  of  a  dense  forest 
are  taller  and  slenderer  than  those  which  develop 
themselves  singly  at  a  distance  from  others  of  the 
same  species,  and  are  for  this  reason  much  exposed 
to  being  blown  down  or  struck  by  lightning.  Hence 
everything  must  be  cleared  away  in  the  vicinity  of 
a  settlement,  and  a  cultivated  second  growth  be  in- 
troduced, so  far  as  this  is  considered  necessary  or 
practicable,  in  order  that  the  settler  may  be  supplied 
with  fire-wood,  or  with  timber  for  manufacturing 
purposes.1 

All  New  England  was  once  densely  covered  with 
forests,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  Appalachian 
region  in  general,  and  of  the  States  lying  west  of 
New  England,  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Illinois,  where 
the  prairies  begin.  In  New  England,  New  York,  and 
Ohio,  and  south  along  the  Appalachian  belt  into 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  over  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  more  southern  States,  most  of  the 
original  forest  growth  has  been  removed,  the  land 
having  gone  into  cultivation  to  a  very  considerable 
extent,  while  only  a  comparatively  small  part  of  it 
has  been  allowed  to  become  covered  with  a  second 
or  still  later  growth  of  timber.  In  no  other  manner 

1  For  information  with  regard  to  the  economical  importance  of  the 
forests  of  the  United  States  as  furnishing  fuel  and  lumber,  see  the  present 
writer's  "  United  States :  Facts  and  Figures  illustrating  the  Physical 
Geography  of  the  Country  and  its  Material  Resources,"  pp.  216,  217. 


132  FORESTS  AND  RAINFALL. 

could  the  now  comparatively  dense  population  of  the 
North  Atlantic  and  Northeastern  Central  States  have 
found  room  to  develop  itself.1  There  is,  however, 
no  proof  that  this  removal  of  much  the  larger  part 
of  the  timber  in  the  now  most  densely  settled  parts  of 
the  country  has  had  any  effect  on  the  climate  of  this 
region.  Statistics  do  not  show  that  the  clearing  of 
the  hills  and  mountains  of  New  England  has  dimin- 
ished the  rainfall,  or  done  anything  else  towards 
making  that  part  of  the  country  less  habitable  than 
it  formerly  was.  Neither  is  there  any  reason  for  sup- 
posing that  a  State  like  Illinois,  the  surface  of  which 
is,  in  large  part,  "  natural  prairie  "  —  that  is,  natu- 
rally destitute  of  forest  vegetation  —  has,  to  any  per- 
ceptible extent,  had  its  share  of  the  rainfall  lessened. 
In  other  words,  the  distribution  of  the  isohyetal  lines 
in  the  naturally  forested,  as  well  as  in  the  naturally 
non-forested,  regions  of  the  country  is  in  no  way 
influenced  by  this  varied  character  of  the  surface  vege- 
tation. It  is  the  direction,  frequency,  and  force  of 
the  prevailing  winds,  the  character  of  the  water- 
surface  over  which  they  have  blown  before  reaching 
land,  the  topographical  features  of  the  region  and  its 
distance  from  the  ocean,  which  are  the  factors  deter- 
mining the  rainfall  of  any  part  of  the  country,  as 
becomes  evident  on  studying  the  rain-charts  of  the 
various  regions  of  the  earth,  and  especially  of  the 
United  States.2 

1  The  density  of  the  population  of  the  Northern  Atlantic  States  was, 
in  1890,  102.8  to  the  square  mile;  of  the  Northeastern  Central  States, 
51.9 ;  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  States,  50.3. 

2  The  conditions  of  rainfall  throughout  the  world,  the  part  which 
forests  play  in  reference  to  the  moisture  of  the  surface,  as  also  various 


INFLUENCING  THE  CLIMATE.        133 

The  theory,  therefore,  that  any  perceptible  change 
can  be  effected  in  the  climate  of  a  country,  or  of  any 
part  of  it,  by  the  removal  or  renewal  of  its  forests,  seems 
to  have  absolutely  no  basis  of  fact.  The  surface  of 
the  ground  will  be  moister  where  it  is  shaded  by  trees, 
and  where  resort  is  not  had  to  artificial  drainage  for 
the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  standing  water,  or  for  dry- 
ing up  swampy  regions.  ^  There  are  also  localities  where 
peculiar  climatic  and  topographical  conditions  make 
the  preservation  of  the  forests  a  matter  of  great  prac- 
tical importance,  as,  for  instance,  in  certain  parts  of 
the  Alps,  where  the  ravages  of  torrents  can  be  guarded 
against,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  by  judicious 
protection  of  the  forests,  aided  by  suitable  engineering 
works  along  the  banks  of  the  streams,  but  this  has 
no  connection  with  any  permanent  increase  of  the 
rainfall,  nor  with  the  development  of  a  change  of 
climate  which  could  by  any  possibility  benefit  a  distant 
region.  It  may  be  asserted  with  truth  that  the  gov- 
ernment has  no  power,  by  anything  it  can  do  at  the 
sources  of  the  streams  heading  in  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
to  influence  the  climate  of  that  part  of  the  country, 
or  the  water-supply  of  any  distant  region,  to  any  per- 
ceptible or  in  the  least  degree  beneficial  extent. 

Facts  collected  all  over  the  world  prove  that  there 
has  been  a  diminution  in  the  area  of  lakes  going  on 
for  an  indefinite  length  of  time,  accompanied  by  a 
marked  but  much  less  easily  detected  decrease  in  the 
volume  of  rivers,  and  that  this  desiccation  is  still  in 

other  matters  connected  with  climatological  inquiries  of  this  kind,  will 
be  found  discussed  in  the  present  writer's  "  Climatic  Changes  of  Later 
Geological  Times,"  Chapter  II. 


134  DESICCATION  IN  HISTOKIC  TIMES. 

progress,  having  been  continued  in  historical  times. 
This  climatic  change  is  one  of  the  most  important 
events  in  the  earth's  history  which  is  known  to  have 
taken  place,  so  far  at  least  as  the  welfare  and  develop- 
ment of  the  human  race  are  concerned.  But  this  desic- 
cation can  be  proved  to  have  been  begun  before  man 
could  have  exerted  any  influence  over  its  progress,  or 
have  been  in  any  way  connected  with  its  initiation, 
since  this  dates  back  to  a  period  of  immense  antiquity, 
long  before  man  had  made  his  appearance  on  the 
earth ;  moreover,  this  desiccation  has  been  continued, 
up  to  the  present  time,  in  regions  where  man  is  doing 
nothing,  and  for  ages  has  done  nothing,  which  could 
interfere  with  the  operations  of  natural  causes. 

As  measured  by  our  ordinary  standard  of  the 
duration  of  time,  this  climatic  change  proceeds  but 
slowly:  it  cannot  be  said  that,  instrumental  observa- 
tions made  since  these  began  to  be  accurately  taken 
prove  that  there  has  been  any  marked  change  in  the 
amount  of  precipitation  which  has  taken  place  in 
any  particular  region;  but  various  natural  phenomena, 
which  are  more  delicate  indications  of  changes  of  this 
kind  than  instrumental  observations,  prove  that  such  a 
modification  of  the  earth's  climate  must  now  be  going 
on,  the  results  of  which  are  necessarily  most  easily  per- 
ceived in  regions  where  the  precipitation  is  already 
so  small  as  to  make  any  decrease  in  its  quantity  a 
matter  of  considerable  importance  in  reference  to  the 
well-being  and  development  of  the  human  race. 

The  second  part  of  the  "  Final  Report  of  the  Arte- 
sian and  Underflow  Investigation,"  now  under  consid- 
eration, is  that  of  Mr.  Nettleton,  the  Chief  Engineer. 


PLAN  OF  WORK  FOR  FINAL  REPORT.  135 

In  the  introduction  to  this  report  it  is  stated  that 
Congress  had  extended  the  time  for  completing  this 
investigation  and  making  the  final  reports  from  July 
1,  1891,  to  January  1,  1892.  In  accordance  with  this 
change  of  plan,  it  was  deemed  best  to  distribute  the 
work  which  could  be  done  in  the  allotted  time  as  uni- 
formly as  practicable  over  the  whole  section  included 
in  the  terms  of  the  act  designating  the  areas  to  be  in- 
investigated.  While  the  geologist,  Professor  Hay,  de- 
cided to  spend  his  time  in  Texas,  Nebraska,  Kansas, 
Colorado,  and  Wyoming,  Mr.  Nettleton  took  the  Dako- 
tas  for  his  principal  field  of  operations,  since  there 
appeared  here  to  be  a  necessity  for  an  investigation 
of  various  engineering  questions  requiring  immedi- 
ate attention.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  examina- 
tions were  made  of  the  underground  water  along  the 
base  of  the  foothills  from  Cheyenne  to  Laramie  City, 
Wyoming.  Additional  surveys  were  made  of  the 
underflow  in  the  valley  of  the  South  Platte,  the  drain- 
age valley  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Eepublican  River, 
and  across  the  valley  of  the  Loup.  The  profiles  of 
the  surveyed  lines  in  the  Arkansas  and  Platte  valleys, 
which  were  given  in  the  Progress  Report  and  of  which 
some  notice  has  already  been  taken,1  are  again  submit- 
ted, with  a  few  additional  facts:  in  regard  to  these 
something  will  be  said  farther  on.  Considerable  detail 
is  gone  into  in  the  present  report  with  regard  to  the 
Dakota  Artesian  basin,  and  it  is  stated  that  no  portion 
of  the  engineering  investigation  has  been  productive 
of  so  much  immediate  benefit  as  that  carried  on  in 
this  region,  especially  in  the  way  of  instructing  the 

1  See  ante,  p.  118. 


136  CONDITIONS  IN  PECOS  VALLEY. 

people  in  regard  to  the  proper  methods  of  utilizing 
the  Artesian  water.  Some  details  of  the  work  which 
has  been  done  in  accordance  with  these  plans  may 
here  be  given. 

Under  the  head  of  "  Pecos  Valley  Subterranean 
Waters/'  some  facts  are  stated  with  reference  to  one  of 
the  driest  parts  of  the  country,  where  the  annual  rain- 
fall is  said  to  average  about  twelve  and  a  half  inches. 
Of  the  amount  of  rain  falling  in  the  Pecos  basin, 
twenty-three  per  cent  is  estimated  as  being  carried 
off  by  that  river,  two  thirds  of  which  is  supposed  to 
come  from  "  spring  underflows,"  and  one  third  from 
water  flowing  from  the  surface.  Mr.  Nettleton  remarks 
that  "  the  percentage  of  run-off  in  the  Pecos  Valley 
is  considerably  less  than  in  Massachusetts  and  several 
other  places  where  observations  have  been  made.  It 
is  to  be  inferred  that  the  percentage  not  accounted 
for  here  exceeds  the  average.  This  being  the  case, 
we  then  must  have  an  underground  flow  greater  than 
the  average  to  carry  away  a  portion  of  the  seventy- 
seven  per  cent  of  the  quantity  not  accounted  for." 
Here  again  we  have  an  entire  misunderstanding  of 
the  fact  that  the  amount  of  the  rainfall  evaporated 
depends  on  the  character  of  the  climate,  and  that 
in  a  region  like  the  Pecos  Valley  the  portion  which 
percolates  the  soil  must  be  but  a  very  insignificant 
fraction  of  that  which  actually  reaches  its  surface. 

Borings  have  been  made  on  the  Texas  and  Pacific 
Railroad  at  Pecos  City  and  Toyah,  "some  eighty  or 
ninety  miles  south."  At  the  former  place  there  are 
said  to  be  sixteen  flowing  Artesian  wells,  the  largest 
flow  from  which  is  sixty  gallons  per  minute.  These 


PECOS  VALLEY  AND  ADJACENT  REGION.         137 

wells  are  from  150  to  250  feet  deep,  and  are  in  the 
drift,  "  some  of  them  just  reaching  the  conglomerate/' 
There  are  also  two  flowing  wells  at  Toyah.  The 
valley  of  the  Pecos  River,  which  itself  heads  in  a  low 
range  of  mountains  near  Santa  Fe,  is  bordered  on  the 
west  by  a  broken  chain  of  elevations  of  considerable 
topographical  importance,  since  their  dominating  peaks 
rise  from  7,000  to  12,000  feet  above  the  sea  level. 
It  is  in  these  ranges  that  the  tributaries  of  the  Pecos 
head,  all  of  them  coming  into  the  main  river  from 
the  west.  These  streams,  however,  all  sink  soon 
after  passing  out  of  the  foot-hills,  at  least  during  the 
drier  part  of  the  year.1  The  quantity  of  water  falling 
on  these  high  ranges  must  at  certain  seasons  be  con- 
siderable, and  much  above  the  average  in  the  Pecos 
Valley  itself,  and  as  the  whole  country  between  the 
river  and  the  mountains  is  underlain  by  limestone,  it 
is  natural  to  suppose  that  much  of  this  water  finds  its 
way  beneath  the  surface,  to  reappear  lower  down  and 
nearer  the  main  stream.2  A  reservoir  company  has 


1  "  The  melting  snows  in  the  mountains  and  sudden  and  heavy  rain- 
fall often  sends  quite  a  large  amount  of  water  through  the  whole  length 
of  the  Hondo  to  the  Pecos."   Loc.  cit.,  p.  13.     The  whole  of  the  Pecos 
Valley  is,  on  the  rain-chart  of  the  United  States  published  in  1868, 
included  within  the  area  having  from  twenty  to  twenty-four  inches  of 
precipitation,  the  isohyetal  of  twenty  inches  reaching  up  that  valley 
nearly  to  Santa  Fe. 

2  The  Rio  Penasco,  which  heads  in  the  Sacramento  Mountains,  a 
group  of  ranges  lying  between  the  Guadalupe  and  Sierra  Blanca  ranges, 
and  enters  the  Pecos  about  fifty  miles  south  of  the  Rio  Hondo,  is 
said  to  present  an  interesting  instance  of  what  has  been  done  —  unin- 
tentionally, in  part  —  to  prevent  the  water  from  sinking  and  being 
lost  in  the  soil  and  limestone  of  its  channel.     This  river  formerly  dis- 
appeared immediately  after  leaving  the  mountains,  but  now  it  is  a  run- 
ning stream  for  its  entire  length,  even  furnishing  water  for  irrigation. 
This  change  is  believed  by  Mr.  Nettleton  to  have  been  caused  in  part 


138  CHINA  HOLES  IN  PECOS  VALLEY. 

been  organized  to  build  a  series  of  storage  reservoirs 
twelve  miles  above  Roswell,  a  settlement  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Eio  Hondo,  at  an  estimated  cost  of 
$232,630,  there  being,  as  is  stated,  a  large  body  of 
fine  land  below  the  proposed  site  of  the  reservoir, 
which  without  water  is  useless,  and  which  it  is  pro- 
posed to  reclaim.1 

In  addition  to  the  springs  in  the  Pecos  Valley, 
there  are  numerous  interesting  pools  of  fresh  water 
on  the  table-lands,  lying  above  any  water-course  or 
storm-water  channel.  These  are  called  by  the  settlers 
of  the  region  "  China  holes,"  from  their  supposed  great 
depth.  Some  of  them  are  but  a  few  feet  in  diameter, 
while  others  cover  an  area  of  several  acres.  Two  of 
them  (about  twelve  miles  southeast  of  Roswell),  which 
had  been  believed  to  be  unfathomable,  were  found  on 
being  sounded  to  have  a  depth  no  greater  than  sixteen 
and  thirty-four  feet.  Water-holes  of  this  kind  are  not 
uncommon  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  where  lime- 
stone and  gypsiferous  rocks  abound,  even  in  regions 
where  the  rainfall  is  very  small,  as  in  the  high  table- 
lands of  South  Africa. 

Mr.  Nettleton's  report  at  present  under  consideration 
is  next  occupied  with  what  is  stated  to  be  "  an  investi- 

by  a  successful  attempt  to  carry  the  water  for  a  distance  of  ten  miles 
or  more  in  a  new  channel,  and  in  part  by  the  continual  tramping  of 
the  bottom  of  the  river  by  thousands  of  cattle  that  go  daily  to  this 
stream  for  water. 

1  There  are  said  to  be  evidences  of  an  ancient  river,  with  here  and 
there  irrigation  works,  on  the  west  side  of  the  ranges  which  have  been 
mentioned  as  lying  to  the  west  of  the  Pecos.  This  lost  river  appears 
once  to  have  "carried  quite  a  volume  of  water."  Its  course  was 
southerly  through  a  valley  lying  between  these  mountains  and  the  Sa-n 
Andreas  range,  fifty  miles  still  farther  to  the  west. 


PLATTE  AND  ARKANSAS  VALLEYS.  139 

gation  of  the  extent  and  availability  of  the  underflow 
in  a.  few  localities  in  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Colorado,  and 
Wyoming,"  the  valleys  of  the  Platte  and  Arkansas 
Rivers  having  been  selected  "as  affording  the  best 
opportunities  for  studying  the  relations  between  the 
surface  and  underground  waters  as  they  exist  in  these 
valleys  and  the  higher  country  on  each  side."  Twelve 
of  these  lines  were  surveyed  as  follows:  five  in  the 
valley  of  the  Platte ;  three  in  that  of  the  Arkansas ; 
one  across  the  valleys  of  the  Loup  Rivers  (an  extension 
in  a  northeasterly  direction  of  the  Lexington  line,  pre- 
viously surveyed l) ;  a  line  from  Sterling  east,  con- 
necting with  the  Big  Spring  line.2  These  lines  are 
essentially  the  same,  or  in  the  same  region,  with  those 
the  surveys  of  which  were  described  in  Mr.  Nettleton's 
previous  report,3  with  the  exception  of  two  lines  sit- 
uated farther  west,  namely,  one,  called  "  the  Cheyenne 
line,"  extending  from  the  head-waters  of  Duck  Creek, 
on  the  Colorado- Wyoming  boundary  line,  to  the  North 
Platte  at  Laramie,  a  distance  of  110  miles,  and  the 
other,  called  the  Sterling  line,  running  from  Akron, 
Colorado,  northward  to  Lodge  Pole  Creek  in  Nebraska, 
striking  at  about  ten  miles  west  of  Sydney,  a  distance 
of  seventy-five  miles. 

Of  the  above  surveyed  lines  that  called  "  the  Chey- 
enne" is  said,  taken  as  a  whole,  to  have  been  "  negative 
in  its  results."  All  the  wells  in  Cheyenne  are  said  to 
be  such  that  in  summer  they  can  be  pumped  dry  with 
a  hand-pump  in  four  or  five  hours,  but  not  in  winter 

1  See  ante,  p.  118,  number  of  the  section  (3). 

2  See  ante,  p.  118,  number  of  the  section  (1). 
8  See  ante,  pp.  117-119. 


140         MOVEMENT  OF  UNDERFLOW. 

or  spring.  At  Fort  Laramie  itself  water  is  found  in 
the  gravel  in  the  delta  of  the  Laramie  and  North 
Platte  Rivers,  and  at  about  the  level  of  that  in  the 
rivers  themselves.  The  Sterling  line  is  also  said  to 
have  furnished  only  negative  results.  The  facts  de- 
veloped on  the  other  surveyed  lines  have  already  been 
given  and  commented  on,  and  no  farther  statements 
need  be  made  with  regard  to  them. 

Under  the  head  of  "Movement  of  Underflow  in 
River  Valleys,"  an  account  is  given  of  some  unsuc- 
cessful experiments  made  for  the  purpose  of  throwing 
light  on  this  question.  A  strong  solution  of  an  aniline 
dye  was  poured  into  a  hole,  below  which,  in  the  sup- 
posed line  of  the  underflow,  trenches  were  dug  at  a 
distance  of  five  feet  apart;  "this  was  done  with  the 
expectation  that  traces  of  the  dye  would  appear  in 
the  first  trench  within  an  hour  or  two,  but  twenty- 
four  hours  failed  to  show  any  colors  even  in  the  first 
trench." 

In  this  connection  it  is  stated  that  "  some  French 
engineers  place  the  rate  of  movement  of  underground 
water  in  the  river  valleys  at  one  mile  in  a  year,  or 
a  little  over  fourteen  feet  per  day,  or  one  eighth  of 
an  inch  in  a  minute,"  to  which  statement  is  added 
the  remark,  "I  am  inclined  not  to  doubt  the  state- 
ment." Calculations  of  this  kind,  however,  cannot  be 
expected  to  lead  to  any  definite  result,  or  to  have  any 
practical  value.  Everything,  in  a  matter  of  this  kind, 
must  depend  on  the  character  of  the  detrital  or  sedi- 
mentary material  through  which  the  "  flow "  is  ex- 
pected to  take  place,  and  on  the  opportunity  offered 
for  it  to  escape  at  some  lower  point.  In  an  impervious 


MOVEMENT  OF  UNDERFLOW.  141 

rock,  like  most  of  the  crystalline  formations,  there  can 
be  no  motion  of  any  fluid,  except  as  opportunity  is 
offered  by  the  existence  of  accidental  fissures;  and 
in  clay,  which  is  also  almost  entirely  impervious,  fis- 
sures cannot  easily  be  formed,  or,  if  formed,  they  will 
soon  be  obliterated  by  the  movement  under  pressure  of 
the  plastic  mass.  In  a  very  porous  rock,  like  some 
kinds  of  sandstone,  wherever  water  under  the  influence 
of  gravitation  has  a  chance  to  escape  it  will  do  so,  and 
its  place  will  be  taken  by  the  adjacent  particles  with 
more  or  less  rapidity  according  to  the  texture  of  the 
rock  and  the  hydrostatic  pressure  exerted  by  the  water. 
This  texture,  however,  is  almost  always  exceedingly 
variable,  especially  in  the  more  recent  detrital  forma- 
tions, in  which  beds  of  clay  are  commonly  intercalated 
with  those  of  sand,  interposing  an  impassable  barrier 
to  the  passage  of  water,  unless  there  is  pressure  enough 
to  make  it  rise  high  enough  to  flow  over  the  top  of 
the  obstacle  thus  interposed.  In  consolidated  or  only 
partly  consolidated  sandstone,  moreover,  fissures  will 
more  or  less  frequently  be  formed,  and  these  will 
gradually  become  filled  with  clay,  and  may  be  of  very 
considerable  dimensions,  so  as  completely  to  obstruct 
the  passage  of  water  for  a  great  distance  both  verti- 
cally and  laterally.  Such  being  the  facts,  it  is  evident 
that  any  attempt  to  measure  the  velocity  of  water 
making  its  way  through  rocks  under  such  changeable 
and  indeterminable  conditions  will  be  entirely  futile, 
even  where  short  distances  are  concerned,  and  much 
more  so  where  hundreds  of  miles  are  to  be  taken  into 
account. 

The  next  subject  discussed  in  Mr.  Nettleton's  final 


142  DEEP  WELLS  OF  DAKOTA  BASIN. 

report  is  that  of  the  deep  wells  of  the  Dakota  basin, 
of  which  a  tabular  statement  is  given  comprising  the 
results  obtained  from  the  examination  of  ninety-three 
wells,  which  number,  however,  does  not  include  all 
the  deep  bores  made  in  that  basin,  some  having  been 
omitted  because,  on  account  of  their  isolated  position, 
time  was  lacking  for  their  examination.  Seventy-five 
of  these  wells  are  in  South  Dakota,  and  all  but  five 
of  the  others  in  North  Dakota;  of  these  five  two  are 
in  Manitoba,  two  in  Montana,  and  one  in  Minnesota. 
The  valley  in  which  most  of  these  wells  are  located 
is  that  of  the  James  River,  a  branch  of  the  Missouri, 
flowing  in  a  nearly  southerly  direction,  between  the 
98th  and  99th  meridians,  across  the  whole  width  of 
South  Dakota  and  nearly  all  that  of  North  Dakota. 
The  wells  of  the  James  River  basin  are  all  represented 
to  be  "flowing  wells/'  but  there  is  no  uniformity  in 
the  amount  of  their  flow :  four  furnish  less  than  ten 
gallons  per  minute;  twelve  over  1,000  gallons;  one 
over  3,000 ;  and  fifteen  between  500  and  1,000.  The 
elevation  of  the  surface  at  these  wells  is,  in  much  the 
larger  number  of  cases,  between  1,200  and  1,600  feet 
above  the  sea-level ;  the  greatest  elevation  noticed  is 
1,645  feet.  The  depth  of  these  wells  is  exceedingly 
variable :  the  deepest  is  1,901  feet ;  the  shallowest, 
229.  Farther  on,  in  discussing  the  report  of  the  geolo- 
gist of  the  Survey,  Professor  Hay,  additional  remarks 
will  be  made  with  reference  to  the  source  from  which 
the  water  of  the  James  River  Artesian  basin  is  de- 
rived.1 At  present  only  the  following  quotation  from 
Mr.  Nettleton's  report  need  be  appended :  "  The  in- 

1  See  farther  on,  p.  154. 


RED  RIVER  VALLEY  BASIN.  143 

vestigations  do  not  show  as  great  uniformity  in  the 
position  of  the  upper  watercourses  or  the  main  water- 
bearing rock  as  was  first  thought  to  exist,  nor  does 
there  appear  to  be  a  general  similarity  in  the  character 
of  the  lower  rocks." 

Next  to  what  is  said  in  Mr.  Nettleton's  report  about 
the  Artesian  wells  of  the  Dakota  basin  come  some 
statements  of  his  assistant,  Mr.  Follett,  in  regard  to 
the  Red  River  Valley  basin,  north  of  Fargo,  in  North 
Dakota.  The  extent  of  the  territory  covered  by  this 
report  is  about  150  miles  north  and  south,  and  thirty- 
five  miles  east  and  west:  it  lies  very  near  the  ninety- 
seventh  meridian.  The  area  over  which  Artesian  water 
is  found  is  on  the  river,  and  extends  back  from  it  for  a 
distance  of  twelve  or  fifteen  miles,  having  a  very 
gentle  and  uniform  descending  grade  from  Fargo  to 
Pembina,  the  difference  of  level  between  these  two 
places,  which  are  150  miles  apart,  being  only  ninety- 
three  feet,  or  six  tenths  of  a  foot  to  the  mile. 

The  principal  water-bearing  stratum  in  this  basin  is 
a  clean  white  sand  or  sandstone,  lying  at  a  depth  of 
from  200  to  300  feet  beneath  the  surface,  and  im- 
mediately overlain  by  red  shale  or  cemented  gravel, 
above  which  is  "  quicksand,  some  limestone  in  places, 
shale,  clay  with  granite  boulders,  and  clay,  all  belong- 
ing, apparently,  to  the  superficial  detrital  formation,  or 
drift."  Above  the  main  water-bearing  bed  there  are 
two  or  three  others  of  much  less  importance,  and  hav- 
ing but  little  continuity.  The  total  number  of  wells 
in  this  basin  is  given  as  436,  nearly  all  having  a  2-inch 
bore,  and  the  aggregate  flow  is  4,585  gallons  per  min- 
ute. The  quality  of  the  water  is  somewhat  variable ; 


144       RECURRENCE  OF  WET  AND  DRY  PERIODS. 

but  in  much  the  larger  number  of  cases  it  is  very 
saline,  that  from  some  of  the  wells  being  described  as 
"too  rank  for  household  use";  but  stock,  it  is  said, 
"  will  drink  it  greedily."  Of  one  of  the  wells  of  Graf- 
ton,  Walsh  County,  which  is  the  "centre  of  the  area 
giving  large  and  free  flows,"  the  water  is  said  to  have 
240  grains  of  salt  to  the  gallon. 

The  Red  River  basin  is  described  by  Mr.  Follett  as 
being,  of  those  the  water  of  which  comes  from  the 
drift,  more  extensive  than  any  other  yet  discovered  in 
the  Dakotas;  but  there  are  basins  of  this  character 
scattered  over  these  two  States,  the  water  from  some 
of  which  is  thought  to  be  superior  in  quality  to  that 
from  the  Red  River  Valley. 

Mr.  Nettleton  is  of  opinion  that  there  has  been  in 
the  regions  over  which  his  investigations  extended  a 
"recurrence  of  wet  and  dry  periods."  In  regard  to 
this  matter  he  writes  as  follows :  "  We  have  not  been 
able  to  fix  the  probable  returns  of  these  periods,  but 
they  seem  to  follow  each  other  quite  regularly,  with 
intervals  of  eleven  to  fourteen  years."  The  evidence 
on  which  this  statement  is  based  seems  very  unsatis- 
factory. There  is  abundant  proof  that  throughout  this 
western  region  the  lakes  are  diminishing  in  area,  as  is 
the  case  all  over  the  world.  Proofs  of  this  decrease  of 
the  water  surface  can  easily  be  obtained  by  examina- 
tion of  the  terraces  or  benches  by  which  the  larger 
lakes  are  surrounded,  which  show  that  Great  Salt  Lake, 
for  instance,  has  decreased  from  350  miles  in  length  to 
about  sixty.  That  in  the  case  of  small  shallow  lakes 
—  or,  more  properly,  ponds  —  there  have  been  fluctu- 
ations in  the  extent  of  the  water  surface,  corresponding 


GEOLOGY  OF  THE  PLAINS.  145 

to  the  ordinary  variations  in  the  rainfall  of  successive 
seasons,  there  can  be  no  doubt ;  but  this  is  a  phenom- 
enon of  extremely  little  importance  compared  with  the 
fact  of  a  general  gradual  desiccation  which  has  been 
going  on  over  a  large  part  of  the  earth's  surface  and 
for  an  indefinite  length  of  time.1 

The  third  volume  of  the  series  of  final  reports  now 
under  consideration  is  that  of  Professor  Hay,  who 
was  assisted  in  his  work  by  Professor  Culver  in  the 
Dakotas,  Professor  Hicks  in  Nebraska,  and  Professor 
Hill  in  Texas  and  New  Mexico.  The  object  of  this 
investigation  is  said  in  Professor  Hill's  "  Letter  of 
Transmittal,"  to  have  been  u  the  source,  volume,  and 
availability  of  the  underground  waters  of  most  of  the 
area  of  the  Great  Plains." 2 

Professor  Hay's  report  begins  with  a  sketch  of  the 
geology  of  the  Plains,  which  is  said  to  be,  on  the 
whole,  simple,  the  chief  difficulty  being  that  over 
thousands  of  square  miles  certain  later  formations  are 
spread  "  in  great  sheets,"  hiding  the  more  regularly 
stratified  formations  below.  The  drift  formation  in 
the  Dakotas  and  the  Tertiary  in  the  more  southern 
region  of  the  Plains  are  said  to  have  much  to  do  with 

1  See  Appendix  B  for  a  fuller  discussion  of  this  subject. 

2  Each  of   these  officials  furnishes,  in  this  volume,  a  special  report, 
of    which  the  titles  are  as  follows:    (1)   "Artesian    and    Underflow 
Investigation  between  the  Ninety-seventh  Meridian  and  the  Foothills  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,"  by  Professor  Hay ;  (2)  "  On  the  Occurrence  of 
Artesian  and  other  Underground  Waters  in  Texas,  Eastern  New  Mexico, 
and  Indian  Territory,  West  of  the  Ninety-seventh  Meridian,"  by  Profes- 
sor Hill ;  (3)  "  The  Underflow  and  Sheet  Waters,  Irrigable  Lands,  and 
Geological  Structure  of    Nebraska,  with  its  Effect   upon    the  Water 
Supply,"  by  Professor  Hicks ;    (4)  A  report  of   fifteen  pages  only,  and 
without  a   special   title,  by  Professor  Culver,  Assistant   Geologist  for 
South  Dakota. 

10 


146  THE  TERTIARY   GRIT. 

the  water  supply/'  since  "all  the  phreatic  waters 
available  without  very  deep  borings  are  found  in 
them."  It  is  of  importance,  therefore,  that  their 
lithological  and  stratigraphical  character  be  well  un- 
derstood, and  in  regard  to  these  matters  the  follow- 
ing statements  are  made  by  Professor  Hay :  "  In  the 
Dakotas  and  Eastern  Kansas  and  Nebraska  there  is  a 
sandy  marly  formation  known  as  the  Loess,  which  in 
large  areas  overlies  the  drift  and  in  others  rests  on 
bed  rock  of  the  district,  Cretaceous  or  Carboniferous, 
as  the  case  may  be.  In  the  plains  from  the  White 
River  of  Nebraska  to  the  Panhandle  of  Texas  there  is 
a  similar  formation,  varying  slightly  in  texture  and 
substance,  as  sand,  lime,  or  clay  predominate,  which 
makes  the  smooth  surface  and  the  deep  subsoil  of  the 
prairie.  The  oldest  parts  are  undoubtedly  of  tertiary 
age,  but  its  formation  lasted  probably  through  the 
drift  period,  and  its  latest  beds  are  probably  contem- 
poraneous with  the  Loess.  We  call  it  the  plains'  marl. 
Beneath  the  plains  marl  with  occasional  exceptions  is 
a  lower  tertiary  formation  of  Miocene  age,  which  in 
this  connection  we  shall  call  the  tertiary  grit.  It  has 
often  been  described,  it  is  nowhere  quite  free  from 
siliceous  matter  and  mostly  sand  is  present  in  quantity. 
In  places  it  has  become  a  gravel  loosely  held  together, 
and  again  the  material  is  more  coherent,  being  a  coarse 
gravel  —  some  pebbles  as  large  as  the  hand  —  but 
firmly  cemented  by  lime  and  iron  so  as  to  form  a  firm 
conglomerate.  Where  the  lime  preponderates  it  looks 
when  broken  like  chunks  of  hard  mortar.  Here  it  is 
known  extensively  as  the  '  mortar  beds.'  Sometimes 
there  is  scarcely  any  sand,  and  the  lime  gives  it  a  white 


THE  TERTIARY  GRIT.  147 

smoothness  that  makes  it  serviceable  for  plastering 
cellars.  In  the  northern  parts  of  the  area  it  is  known 
as  '  plaster '  and  '  native  lime/  and  in  the  south  it  is 
the  ( terra  blanca,'  or  white  earth  of  New  Mexico  and 
the  Llano  Estacado."1 

From  the  above  citations  it  will  be  seen  that,  as 
already  noticed, 2  it  is  entirely  impossible,  over  a  large 
part  of  the  Great  Plains,  to  distinguish  the  Post- 
Tertiary  from  the  Tertiary.  There  is  no  propriety  in 
designating  any  part  of  the  superficial  formation  occur- 
ring in  this  region  by  the  name  of  "Loess,"  the  use 
of  which  term  by  Western  geologists  can  only  tend  to 
make  the  understanding  of  their  superficial  geology 
more  difficult  than  it  would  otherwise  be. 

The  "  Tertiary  grit,"  as  here  described,  seems  to  be 
a  formation  varying  greatly  in  lithological  character, 
some  parts  being  firmly  cemented  by  lime  and  iron, 
while  others  contain  scarcely  any  sand.  In  rocks  of 
this  character  no  regular  "flow"  could  with  any 
propriety  be  looked  for.  Still,  it  is  said  by  Professor 
Hay  to  be  very  absorptive  of  the  rainfall,  when  out- 
cropping at  the  surface,  and  to  be,  for  this  reason, 
"the  source  of  the  phreatic  waters  which  supply  the 
wells  of  the  level  or  gently  sloping  high  prairies,  which 
have  for  their  surface  the  plains  marl,  whose  less  po- 
rous sheets  cover  much  of  the  region."  As  a  source 
of  water-supply  this  grit  takes  the  place  of  the  drift 
gravels  of  the  more  northern  part  of  the  area  under 
examination. 

The  Tertiary  grit  is  considered  by  Professor  Hay, 
on  account  of  its  porous  nature  and  the  impervious 

1  Loc.  cit.,  p.  10.  2  See  ante,  pp.  119, 120. 


148  WELLS  IN   THE  TERTIARY  GRIT. 

character  of  the  formations  which  lie  immediately  be- 
neath it,  as  being  a  water-holder  of  great  importance 
for  a  very  extensive  region.  That  it  is  actually  so,  he 
says,  "  is  known  by  the  wells  that  all  over  the  plains 
have  been  dug  or  bored  into  it.  The  level  region 
of  the  Texas  Pan  Handle  has  water  from  wells ;  the 
plain  between  the  Cimarron  and  Arkansas  has  water ; 
the  divides  between  the  Republican  and  Smoky  have 
hundreds  of  wells ;  away  up  on  the  Niobrara  the  high 
prairie  has  wells.  They  vary  in  depth,  but  each  divide 
has  a  uniform  depth  for  long  distances,  or  they  increase 
gradually  in  a  given  direction.  At  Washburn,  Texas, 
they  are  150  feet  deep ;  at  Richfield,  Kansas,  and  east 
thereof  for  seventy  miles,  they  are  eighty  feet  deep. 
North  of  the  Frenchman,  in  Nebraska,  they  are  over 
200  feet  deep  on  the  Colorado  line,  increasing  to  over 
300  feet  forty  miles  east." 

These  wells  are  "considered  inexhaustible,"  but,  in 
point  of  fact,  they  have  hitherto  been  almost  exclu- 
sively used  for  watering  stock.1  That  any  considerable 
amount  of  irrigation  can  be  effected  by  their  aid 
seems,  even  to  Professor  Hay,  hardly  possible,  for  he 
remarks  in  regard  to  this  point  as  follows :  "  Where  a 
windmill  already  exists  some  few  acres  may  be  irri- 
gated. A  more  powerful  windmill  pump  and  a  small  — 
one  or  two  acres  —  reservoir  would  allow  more  water 
to  be  raised,  and  the  farm  redeemed  at  once  from  arid- 
ity and  mortgage.  It  is  not  expected  that  anymore 
than  fifteen  or  twenty  acres  can  be  thus  irrigated  in 
any  quarter  section,  and  on  large  areas  the  average  will 
not  be  more  than  ten  acres ;  but  the  high  divides  and 

1  See  ante,  pp.  118,  119. 


WATER-SUPPLY  FROM  THE  TERTIARY   GRIT.      149 

the  body  of  the  great  plains  must  be  thus  irrigated  if 
any  large  part  of  it  is  to  be  redeemed  in  the  next 
quarter  of  a  century." 

The  question  of  the  importance  as  a  source  of  water- 
supply  of  this  formation  is  thus  summed  up  by  Professor 
Hay :  "  We  have  thus  seen  that  the  water  in  the  Ter- 
tiary grit,  buried  from  50  to  300  feet  below  the  plains 
and  cropping  on  the  sides  of  ravines  in  gushing  springs, 
is  the  main  reliance  of  the  plains  region;  it  is  the 
sole  reliance  of  the  immense  areas  lying  back  from  the 
valleys,  the  only  reservoir  on  which  these  wells  can 
draw  to  irrigate  the  land.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  the 
source  of  the  waters  of  the  rivers  of  the  plains,  and 
adds  to  the  volume  of  those  whose  origin  is  in  the 
mountains.  We  have  shown  that  its  source  is  the  rain- 
fall of  the  region  varying  from  eighteen  or  twenty 
inches  on  the  one  hundredth  meridian  to  twelve  or 
fourteen  inches  on  the  one  hundred  and  fifth." l 

The  question  whether  this  amount  of  rainfall  is  suffi- 
cient to  replenish  this  reservoir  (the  Tertiary  grit)  with 
sufficient  rapidity,  and  in  sufficient  quantity  to  allow  of 
its  being  drawn  upon  to  an  extent  sufficient  to  make  it 
available  for  irrigation  on  a  large  scale,  Professor  Hay 
seems  to  think  can  be  answered  in  the  affirmative ; 
but  at  the  same  time  he  admits  that  an  approximately 
correct  answer  is  "  only  partially  possible  at  present," 
because  "  observations  on  the  quantity  of  rainfall  have 
only  been  made  at  comparatively  few  places  widely 
separated,  and  no  experiments  at  all  have  been  made  on 
evaporation  as  related  to  the  absorptive  character  of 
the  soil."  In  spite  of  this  fact,  however,  he  quotes 

1  Loc.  cit.t  p.  18. 


150  POSSIBILITIES  OF  IRRIGATION. 

with  approval  the  opinions  of  Professor  Van  Diest  that 
it  is  not  an  exaggerated  estimate  to  suppose  that  half 
the  rainfall  in  Eastern  Colorado,  and  probably  also  in 
Eastern  New  Mexico,  sinks  into  the  ground.  With 
special  reference  to  Eastern  Colorado  it  is  thought  that 
this  would  not  be  less  than  five  inches  over  an  area  of 
32,000  square  miles,  and  if  this  "  could  all  be  redeemed 
from  the  subsoil  it  would  be  sufficient  for  the  irrigation 
of  1,200,000  acres,  or  one  seventeenth  of  the  above- 
named  area." 

The  present  writer  has  already  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  amount  of  rainfall  which  percolates  the  soil 
in  the  region  in  question  is  much  less  than  that  here 
estimated  by  Professor  Van  Diest ;  and  how,  by  any 
possibility,  all  that  which  actually  does  thus  percolate 
could  be  "  redeemed  "  —  or,  in  other  words,  brought  to 
the  surface  again  —  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  un- 
derstand :  that  more  than  a  very  small  fraction  of  it 
could  be  made  available  for  irrigational  or  other  pur- 
poses seems  quite  clear.1 

The  volume  of  the  rivers  heading  well  up  on  the 
high  valleys  of  the  main  range  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, which  are  largely  fed  by  the  melting  snow 
is  considerable,  while  that  of  the  streams  which  head 
below  the  mountains,  which  Professor  Hay  calls 
"rivers  of  the  plains,"  is  comparatively  insignificant, 
except  in  times  of  flood,  as  might  be  expected  from  the 
small  average  rainfall  of  this  region.2 

1  See  ante,  pp.  105-121. 

2  See  page  23  of  Professor  Hay's  report,  where  the  volume  of  some 
of  these  rivers  is  given,  not,  however,  as  the  mean  of  any  considerable 
length  of  time,  but  as  the  result  of  measurements  made  on  one  day  only. 
All  these  rivers  vary  greatly  in  volume  at  different  seasons,  and  even  at 


EXAGGERATED  IDEAS  OF  THE   UNDERFLOW.     151 

The  meaning  of  the  word  "underflow,"  a  term 
used  in  the  act  of  Congress  authorizing  the  investiga- 
tion the  results  of  which  are  here  under  discussion,  the 
difficulty  of  defining  which  has  already  been  sug- 
gested/ is  a  matter  which  receives  some  considera- 
tion on  the  part  of  Professor  Hay,  who  endeavors  to 
"indicate  the  right  use  of  the  term,  as  well  as  the 
extent  of  the  thing  itself." 

In  regard  to  the  exaggerated  ideas  of  the  underflow 
current  in  the  arid  region,  and  for  which  the  officials 
connected  with  the  irrigation  investigation  are  largely 
responsible,  Professor  Hay  remarks  as  follows :  "  We 
have  heard  speakers  dilating  on  the  advantages  of  the 
semi-arid  region  refer  to  '  the  mighty  underflow  of  the 
'plains/  In  reference  to  particular  valleys,  we  have 
met  the  statement  that  the '  underground  Platte  '  and  the 
( underground  Arkansas '  are  greater  streams  than  the 
visible  streams  that  bear  those  names.  The  underflow 
of  the  latter  river  is  spoken  of  sometimes  as  being 
fifty  miles  wide,  and  sometimes  the  subterrene  waters 
of  the  plains,  both  valleys  and  uplands,  have  been 
spoken  of  as  one  great  underground  ocean,  with  a 
general  movement  to  the  south  of  east.2 .  .  .  The  most 
extravagant  form  under  which  we  have  heard  the  under- 
flow explained  and  defined  is  about  as  follows :  There 
are  heavy  snows  in  the  Kocky  Mountains  and  subor- 
dinate ranges ;  these  are  melted  every  summer.  There 
is  a  large  body  of  water  supplying  wells  on  the  plains 

dates  separated  by  intervals  of  only  a  few  days.  The  liability  of  all  these 
streams  to  "  freshets  "  —  that  is,  to  very  great  and  rapid  increase  of  volume 
—  is  a  matter  of  importance  in  reference  to  questions  of  irrigation,  espe- 
cially where  control  of  the  water-supply  by  means  of  dams  is  proposed, 
adding  very  greatly  to  the  difficulty  and  expense  of  such  operations. 
1  See  ante,  p.  101.  2  See  ante,  p.  110. 


152  WHAT  THE  UNDERFLOW  REALLY  IS. 

in  Wyoming,  Nebraska,  Colorado,  Kansas,  and  Texas. 
There  is  a  general  slope  of  the  country  from  the  north- 
west to  the  southeast.  There  are  immense  springs  in 
a  line  across  the  State  of  Texas.  There  are  springs 
of  fresh  water  rising  on  the  bottom  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Therefore,  there  is  a  vast  body  of  water 
under  the  plains,  moving  from  the  mountains  toward 
the  sea,  capable  of  irrigating  the  whole  country,  and, 
as  one  person  said,  {  It  is  God  Almighty's  method  for 
the  redemption  of  the  arid  region/  ' 

Professor  Hay  thinks  that  most  of  the  facts  alleged 
in  the  above  statement  "  are  as  stated."  But,  at  the 
same  time,  he  gives  sufficient  reasons  for  not  adopting 
this  widely  spread  belief  in  any  underflow  such  as 
indicated  above.  The  waters  of  the  great  Texan 
springs,  he  admits,  "are  fully  accounted  for  without 
any  recourse  to  the  distant  mountains  "  ;  the  great  vol- 
ume of  the  Loup  Kivers  of  Nebraska,  and  of  the  wells 
on  the  interfluvial  upland  "may  be  referred,  without 
any  possible  contradiction,  to  the  rainfall  of  the  plains 
themselves."  Moreover,  "  the  great  body  of  the  area 
of  the  plains  is  cut  off  from  contact  with  the  moun- 
tains by  deep  river  trenches,  which  make  it  impossible 
for  them  to  receive  any  benefit  from  the  melting  of  the 
mountain  snows."  Keeping  these  and  other  facts  of  a 
similar  nature  in  mind,  and  realizing  that  the  correct 
use  of  the  term  "  underflow "  has  led  to  exaggerated 
and  erroneous  ideas  of  its  quantity  and  its  source, 
Professor  Hay  wishes  to  limit  the  use  of  this  word  "  to 
the  waters  of  the  great  valleys  found  in  the  alluvia 
under  the  beds  of  the  streams,  and  to  a  limited  extent 
under  the  fertile  bottoms  which  bound  the  stream  beds." 


ARTESIAN   BASINS  OF  GREAT  PLAINS.  153 

In  regard  to  the  fact  that  under  and  near  the  beds  of 
the  large  streams  of  the  Plains,  water  will  be  found  in 
some  quantity  in  the  porous  grounds  and  sands  there 
accumulated,  and  to  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
stream  itself  both  laterally  and  vertically,  there  can  be 
no  doubt,  while  it  may  be  questionable  whether  the  use 
of  the  word  "  underflow  "  as  descriptive  of  so  univer- 
sal a  condition  of  things  may  be  entirely  justifiable, 
especially  as  its  introduction  and  general  application 
have  heretofore  had  reference  to  something  entirely 
different  and  which  has  been  shown  not  to  exist.  That 
in  most  cases  the  origin  of  the  water  obtained  in  deep 
wells  on  the  plains  is  the  rainfall,  either  of  the  present 
or  the  past,  is  a  fact  in  support  of  which  it  seems 
hardly  necessary  to  offer  farther  evidence,  and  in 
regard  to  which  sufficient  has  already  been  said.1 

In  regard  to  the  proper  "Artesian  basins"  of  the 
Great  Plains,  Professor  Hay  remarks  that  their  num- 
ber had  not  been  increased  since  the  publication  of  the 
previous  report,  while,  however,  "  important  increments 
had  been  made  to  the  areas  of  some  of  the  principal. 
The  Artesian  regions  having  the  largest  wells  and  the 
most  extensive  areas  are  the  James  River  basin,  Dakota, 
and  the  Fort  Worth-Waco  basin,  Texas.2  The  Dakota 
basin  is  said  to  have  had  many  additional  wells  sunk 
and  its  area  extended  by  the  obtaining  of  water  at 
Armour  and  Chamberlain.  It  is  thought  that  the  area 
of  this  basin  will  eventually  be  proved  to  extend  on 
the  west  side  of  the  Missouri  toward  the  Black  Hills, 
and  "  that  the  name  James  Eiver  basin  must  give  way 

1  See  ante,  pp.  118-122,  these  pages  being  in  type  before  the  Final 
Report  here  under  consideration  had  been  received. 

2  See  ante,  pp.  113-116. 


154    WATER  FROM  THE  DAKOTA  SANDSTONE. 

to  the  more  extensive  one  of  the  Dakota  Artesian 
basin."  But  it  is  suggested  that  "  it  will  be  wise  to 
use  the  caution  suggested  by  the  wells  at  Denver  and 
Fort  Worth,1  not  to  bore  the  wells  too  close  together, 
no  matter  how  large  the  underground  reservoir  may 
be,  if  it  can  be  drained  by  persistent  tapping." 

In  regard  to  the  source  of  the  Artesian  water-supply 
of  the  Dakota  or  James  River  basin,  it  is  said  that 
"there  is  nothing  yet  learned  to  suggest  any  other 
origin  than  that  given  last  year,2  viz.  the  outcrops  of 
the  Dakota  and  other  sandstones  on  the  eastern  foot- 
hills of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  subordinate  ranges." 
The  theory  that  the  Missouri  River  is  the  source  from 
which  the  water  comes  is  considered  untenable,  because 
the  pressure  at  the  wells  is  too  great. 

The  wells  at  Coolidge,  in  the  Arkansas  Valley,3  are 
thought  by  Professor  Hay  to  have  their  water  also 
from  the  Dakota  sandstone,  but  not  from  the  moun- 
tains to  the  west,  on  the  flanks  of  which  these  rocks 
crop  out  with  upturned  edges.  The  reason  for  this 
idea  is,  that  at  Oberlin,  in  Northern  Kansas,  a  deep 
boring  has  penetrated  these  beds  "  without  getting  any 
supply  of  water  that  warrants  the  supposition  of  a 
mountain  source."  The  explanation  suggested  for  the 
failure  to  obtain  water  from  the  sandstone  at  that 
locality  is,  "  that  it  is  not  in  mountain  uplift  that  we 
find  the  best  sources  of  Artesian  waters,  but  rather  in 
the  exposure  of  porous  strata  lying  at  comparatively 
low  angles  of  bedding,  giving  wide  areas  in  which  to 
absorb  rainfall  and  without  breaks  of  continuity  caused 

1  See  ante,  p.  116.  a  See  ante,  p.  113. 

8  See  ante,  p.  115. 


UNDERGROUND  WATER.  155 

by  the  faulting  or  folding  of  mountain  structure."1 
It  is  suggested  by  Professor  Hay  that  the  water  of  the 
wells  at  Coolidge  is  forced  upward,  not  by  hydrostatic, 
but  by  gas  pressure,  and  a  little  farther  on  in  this 
report  this  agency  as  a  cause  of  the  rise  of  water  to 
and  above  the  surface,  where  there  is  no  evidence  of 
the  existence  of  the  necessary  hydrostatic  conditions 
is  again  alluded  to,  with  the  additional  statement  that 
"  another  cause  exists  for  flowing  wells  which  we  call 
rock  pressure." 2 

The  report  of  Professor  Hill,  of  which  the  title  has 
already  been  given,3  begins  with  a  brief  introduction 
in  regard  to  the  occurrence  and  availability  of  under- 
ground water,  in  which  some  interesting  facts  are  given 
confirming  a  matter  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made,  namely,  the  extraordinary  ideas  on  this  subject 
held  throughout  the  arid  regions  of  the  United  States 
"  by  men  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence  in  other 
walks  of  life."  The  following  quotation  may  be  read 
as  an  illustration  of  this  condition  of  things:  "The 
most  current  of  these  erroneous  ideas  is  that  all  under- 
ground water  flows  in  streams  '  like  the  circulatory  sys- 
tem of  the  human  body,'  as  an  intelligent  citizen  once 

1  We  find  here  a  heavy  blow  administered  to  the  theory  most  gener- 
ally held  by  the  advocates  of  the  "  underflow  "  of  the  Great  Plains,  and 
by  Mr.  Hinton  as  well  as  by  Mr.  Catlin,  namely,  that  it  is  the  rainfall 
upon  the  upturned  edges  of  the  formations  cropping  out  at  the  base  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  which  feeds  this  moving  mass  of  waters.     (See  ante, 
pp.  109,  110.) 

2  This  subject  of   the  cause  of  the  rise  of  water  to  the  surface  in 
regions  where  there  is  no  proof  of  the  existence  of  the  ordinary  Artesian 
conditions,  and  where  the  facts  seem  to  indicate  that  these  are  not  at  all 
likely  to  be  present,  will  receive  consideration  farther  on  in  the  present 
volume. 

a  See  ante,  p.  145. 


156  UNDERGROUND  WATER. 

expressed  it.  The  underground  rivers  are  thought  to 
supply  every  well  and  spring,  and  it  is  a  curious  sight 
to  see  the  water  witch  or  switch  fakir  plod  over  a  farm 
with  his  forked  stick  trying  to  locate  the  '  current.'  In 
the  vast  areas  between  the  Rockies  and  the  Mississippi 
the  belief  prevails  that  all  the  wells  are  supplied  from 
precipitation  upon  the  mountains,  whose  waters  are 
supposed  to  disappear  beneath  the  surface  to  rise 
again  a  thousand  miles  away  along  the  coastal  plain, 
(The  Galveston  News,  November  7,  1891,)  while  be- 
neath the  vast  intervening  regions  is  an  inexhaust- 
ible store  of  water,  waiting  for  some  intervention  of 
man  to  bring  -it  to  the  surface.  The  doctrine  of  the 
6  underflow/  as  it  is  called,  proved  so  contagious  in 
Kansas  a  year  ago  that  whole  communities  indulged  in 
most  exaggerated  anticipations  of  its  development."  l 

In  view  of  these  facts,  Professor  Hill  considers  that 
it  is  desirable  to  examine  the  simple  laws  controlling 
the  distribution  of  underground  waters,  the  source  of 
which  he  admits  to  be  the  rainfall ;  but,  he  adds,  "  the 
underground  supply  in  any  region  is  not  proportionate 
to  the  rainfall."  The  unequal  distribution  of  water 
in  the  saturated  portion  of  the  earth's  crust  is  thought 
to  be  "  due  to  the  difference  in  porous  texture  of  the 
different  rocks  which  compose  it,  their  arrangement 
relative  to  one  another,  the  amount  of  rainfall  and 
surface  evaporation  and  the  relative  altitude  above  or 
below  the  adjacent  drainage  level."  If  the  strata  are 
inclined  at  a  high  angle,  as  is  the  case  in  most  moun- 
tainous regions,  Artesian  water  will  rarely  be  obtained 
by  boring ;  but  where  the  dip  of  the  rocks  is  but  slight, 

i  Loc.  cit.,  p.  49. 


UNDERGROUND  WATER.  157 

there  the  conditions  are  most  favorable  for  success  in 
undertakings  of  this  kind.  It  is  in  the  newer  forma- 
tions that  the  conditions  determining  the  supply  of 
water  are  most  likely  to  be  satisfactory.  In  illustra- 
tion of  these  general  principles  various  facts  are  cited, 
having  more  especially  reference  to  the  conditions  pre- 
vailing in  parts  of  Texas,  and  an  ideal  section  from  the 
Gulf  Coast  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  is  given. 

In  concluding  these  general  considerations  in  regard 
to  water-supply  it  is  said  that  "It  is  apparent  that 
the  best  conditions  for  securing  underground  water  are 
not  in  consolidated  or  mountain  rocks,  as  shown  by 
the  futile  experiments  of  the  Government  well  borings 
under  Capt.  Pope  in  1858,  and  the  numerous  failures 
of  the  Southern  Pacific  road  —  all  of  which  were 
drilled  with  the  idea  that  the  water  came  from  the 
mountains.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  most  sterile 
sandy  upland  plains,  like  the  great  Jornado  Muerto,  or 
filled-in-river  valleys,  like  that  of  the  Rio  Grande,  are 
the  most  favorable  locations  for  imbibition  and  storage 
of  underground  water.  By  taking  advantage  of  this 
law  hundreds  of  wells,  nonflowing  it  is  true,  have  been 
obtained  upon  the  greatest  of  our  supposed  waterless 
plains,  such  as  the  Llano  Estacado  and  the  Franklin- 
Huerco  basin  north  of  El  Paso."  It  is  candidly  admit- 
ted, however,  that  the  supply  of  underground  water  is 
sufficient  to  reclaim  for  agriculture  by  irrigation  "  only 
a  very  small  fraction  of  our  desert  lands."  Still  it  is 
believed  that,  "by  applying  these  principles,  thou- 
sands of  wells  can  be  obtained  upon  areas  now  ab- 
solutely waterless,  which  would  be  of  great  value  to 
overland  commerce  and  to  herders,  and  would  save 


158  THE  TEXAS -NEW  MEXICO  REGION. 

large  amounts  of  money  now  wasted  in  unprofitable 
experiments." l 

Professor  Hill  next  proceeds  in  the  report  here  under 
examination  to  give  a  quite  detailed  account  of  what 
he  designates  as  the  "Texas -New  Mexico  Region."2 
This  he  describes  as  consisting  topographically  of  "  a 
series  of  extensive  elongated  parallel  dip  plains  and 
plateaus,  extending  approximately  in  a  north  and  south 
direction,  and  abruptly  terminating  at  each  end  by  a 
great  mountain  system,  extending  at  right  angles  to 
them  —  an  arrangement  comparable  to  a  wide  stair- 
way, in  which  the  steps  are  represented  by  the  plains 
and  the  walls  by  the  inclosing  mountains."  This  vast 
area  he  subdivides  as  follows  :  (1)  The  Eastern  Division, 
a  series  of  present  and  ancient  coast  deposits,  occupy- 
ing the  eastern  third  of  Texas  and  having  a  total  area 
of  no  less  than  172,800  square  miles.  The  eastern 
half  of  this  division  is  essentially  similar  to  the  ad- 
jacent lowlands  of  the  Gulf  States ;  the  western  half, 
including  the  Black  and  Grand  Prairies  is  "uniquely 
Texan,"  and  is  the  "chalk  region  of  the  United 
States."  (2)  The  "  Central  Denuded  Region"  consisting 
of  Palaeozoic  and  Mesozoic  rocks  (the  latter  generally 
known  as  the  "Red  Beds"),  which  underlie  unconform- 
ably  the  coast  rocks  of  division  (1),  and  are  exposed 
by  the  erosion  of  that  formation  or  by  being  upturned 

1  The  conditions  of  water-supply  as  affected  by  the  various  circum- 
stances indicated  in  this  part  of  Professor  Hill's  report  will  be  discussed 
farther  on  in  the  present  work,  in  seeking  to  sum  up  our  knowledge  of 
this  complicated  and  not  yet  thoroughly  understood  subject. 

2  Professor  Hill  had  prepared  himself  for  this  task  by  his  previous 
experience  in  the  Geological  Survey  of  Arkansas.     See  Annual  Report 
of  that  Survey,  Vol.  II.,  1888 ;   and  Bulletin  No.  45  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey 
(1887) ;  also,  The  American  Geologist,  Vol.  V.  (1890),  p.  9. 


THE  TEXAS -NEW  MEXICO  REGION.  159 

in  the  two  great  mountain  systems  which  limit  the 
region  —  the  Ouachita  on  the  north,  and  the  basin 
ranges  of  the  trans-Pecos  country  and  Northern  Mexico 
on  the  west.  This  division  lies  between  the  Eastern 
Division  and  the  Llano  Estacado,  and  is  classed  in  three 
principal  subdivisions,  viz. :  (a)  the  region  of  the  Car- 
boniferous coal  measures,  with  the  sandstones,  clays, 
and  limestones  peculiar  to  that  portion  of  the  geologi- 
cal series;  (&)  a  region  of  granite  and  metamorphic 
rocks  and  older  limestones,  called  by  Professor  Hill 
the  " Burnet-Mason  Country";  (c)  the  Red  Bed  Re- 
gion, including  the  peculiar  red  lands  of  the  Concho, 
Abilene,  Wichita,  and  Oklahoma  regions.  (3)  The 
Mountain  Systems,  including,  (a)  the  Ouachita  system 
of  Arkansas  and  the  Indian  Territory,  older  than  the 
plains  of  the  coastal  system,  which  were  laid  down 
against  it,  and  separating  the  Texas  region  from  the 
Kansas ;  (b)  the  Basin  Mountains,  west  of  the  Pecos 
and  south  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  proper,  which  end 
at  Santa  F£.  The  so-called  Basin  Mountains  are  made 
up  "  of  the  uplifted,  folded,  and  crumpled  edges  of  the 
earlier  of  these  plains,  i.  e.  those  formed  of  rocks  of 
Cretaceous  age."  (4)  Remnental  Plains,  either  later 
than  the  Rocky  Mountain  uplift  or  allied  in  age  to  it. 
These  plains  are  considered  as  being  the  continuation 
of  the  Plateau  region  of  the  West.  In  this  division 
are  included  the  Llano  Estacado  and  Raton  las  Vegas 
plateau,  which  were  once  continuous  with  the  Eastern 
Division,  "but  have  been  separated  from  it  by  the 
great  denudation  which  laid  bare  the  central  denuded 
region."  These  plains  occupy  no  less  than  91,200 
square  miles  of  Northwestern  Texas  and  New  Mexico. 


160  THE   TEXAS -NEW  MEXICO  REGION. 

(5)  The  Basin  Plains  "  which  lie  between  the  mountain 
blocks  of  the  Trans-Pecos  region,  and  are  continuous  in 
genesis  and  every  physical  aspect  with  the  Great  Basin 
region  of  Utah  and  Nevada,  and  the  so-called  High 
Plateau  of  Mexico."  Each  of  these  five  grand  divisions 
is  said  to  have  "its  own  peculiar  features  of  topog- 
raphy, climate,  geological  structure,  and  water  con- 
ditions," and  each  is  discussed  by  Professor  Hill  at 
considerable  length. 

The  Eastern  Division,  which  comprises  half  of  the 
State  of  Texas,  lies  east  of  a  line  drawn  irregularly 
from  the  western  edge  of  Cooke  County,  southward  to 
the  northeastern  corner  of  Burnet  County,  and  from 
there  westward  to  the  trans-Pecos  Mountains.  The 
stratigraphieal  character  is  very  simple,  so  that  there 
is  not  much  difficulty  in  determining,  so  far  as  geologi- 
cal structure  is  concerned,  its  conditions  with  reference 
to  an  Artesian  water-supply.  There  is,  however,  a 
remarkable  difference  in  the  amount  of  rain  falling 
in  various  sections  of  this  State.  The  isohyetal  of 
twenty  inches  follows,  in  a  general  northwesterly 
direction,  pretty  nearly  the  course  of  the  Rio  Grande 
and  its  most  important  branch  —  the  Rio  Pecos  —  as 
far  as  the  southeastern  corner  of  New  Mexico,  while  the 
curve  of  thirty-two  inches,  starting  from  Matamoras,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  only  about  one 
degree  east  of  that  of  twenty  inches,  follows  the  coast 
line,  keeping  at  first  at  no  great  distance,  but  gradu- 
ally receding  from  it  and  passing  a  little  to  the  west 
of  Austin.  Thus  the  isohyetals,  which  are  very 
closely  crowded  together  at  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  State,  recede  from  each  other  rapidly  in  advan- 


THE  EASTERN  DIVISION  OF  TEXAS.  161 

cing  toward  the  north.  The  northwestern  part  of 
Texas  is,  therefore,  within  the  semi-arid  and  arid  belt, 
while  the  eastern  side  of  the  State  is  a  region  of  very 
abundant  precipitation. 

The  Eastern  Division  of  the  State  is  underlain  by  a 
series  of  sedimentary  deposits  formed  in  and  around 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  as  its  surface  was  elevated  or  de- 
pressed, all  dipping  toward  the  coast  at  an  angle  which 
is  very  slight,  but  a  little  greater  than  that  of  the  grade 
of  the  surface,  so  that  in  going  westward,  and  ascend- 
ing above  the  sea-level,  older  geological  formations  are 
being  constantly  encountered,  and  as  these  vary  con- 
siderably in  lithological  character  the  consequence  is 
that  successive  belts  of  country  are  crossed,  each  having 
its  peculiar  soil,  rocks,  and  flora.  If  the  underlying 
formation  is  a  sandstone,  the  detrital  material  form- 
ing the  surface  is  sandy,  and  covered  with  timber ;  if 
the  underlying  rock  is  marly  or  clayey,  the  soil  will 
be  "  black,  sticky,  and  treeless "  ; l  moreover,  water 
will  be  obtained  in  abundance  by  sinking  wells  in  the 
sandy  rock,  while  this  will  not  be  the  case  if  the  under- 
lying rock  is  not  of  this  character.  To  quote  Professor 
Hill :  u  Wherever  the  formation  is  sandy  there  are  for- 
ests, as  the  east  Texas  pine  woods  and  the  lower  and 

i  The  fact  that  the  distribution  of  the  forests,  in  all  countries  and  in 
all  climates,  is  more  or  less  dependent  on  the  texture  of  the  soil  has  been 
repeatedly  insisted  on  by  the  present  writer,  and  could  have  no  better 
illustration  than  that  presented  by  the  conditions  prevailing  in  Texas  as 
described  by  Professor  Hill,  as  also  by  others  who1  have  made  a  special 
study  of  the  surface  geology  and  botany  of  this  State.  See  Geology  of 
Iowa  (1858),  Vol.  1.  p.  23;  The  American  Naturalist  for  October  and 
November,  1876;  Science  for  All,  VoL  V.  p.  124;  Names  and. Places 
(1888),  pp.  174-177;  The  United  States:  Facts  and  Figures  illustrating 
the  Physical  Geography  of  the  Country  and  its  Material  Resources,  1889, 
pp.  212,  213. 

11 


162  FAULT  LINES  OF  EASTERN  DIVISION. 

upper  cross  timbers  ;  wherever  the  country  is  an  open 
prairie  it  is  underlaid  by  compact  formations  with  little 
sand,  such  as  clays  and  chalks.  The  coastal  prairie, 
the  Fayette  prairies,  the  Black  prairie  belt,  the  Eagle 
Ford  prairie,  the  Grand  prairie,  and  the  red  beds  are  all 
of  this  class.  Each  of  these  different  strips  of  country 
has  a  soil  radically  different  from  that  of  the  others,  for 
the  soil  is  the  surface  residuum  of  the  underlying  struc- 
tures." The  sheets  of  sand  of  the  Coastal  incline,  being 
in  a  region  of  considerable  rainfall,  become  receiving 
areas  for  water,  which,  where  the  conditions  are  favor- 
able, will  rise  above  the  surface,  so  that,  as  Professor 
Hill  asserts,  throughout  much  of  the  area  having  this 
geological  character  Artesian  wells  can  be  obtained 
without  difficulty. 

Two  great  fault  lines  are  also  indicated  by  Professor 
Hill  as  being  important  features  of  the  geology  of  the 
Grand  and  Black  Prairie  regions.  One  of  these  faults 
extends  from  near  Dallas  through  Waco  and  Austin  to 
Del  Rio ;  this  is  a  fault  running  in  the  line  of  strike 
of  the  formation,  and  having  a  downthrow  to  the  east. 
The  other  is  a  dip  fault,  extending  from  Marietta, 
Indian  Territory,  to  the  south  of  Paris,  Texas,  with  a 
downthrow  toward  the  interior,  "reducing  the  receiv- 
ing area  below  the  altitude  of  most  of  the  Red  River 
countries  of  Texas,  where  water  would  be  most  desired." 
This,  as  Professor  Hill  remarks,  is  the  simple  geologi- 
cal structure  of  the  whole  eastern  half  of  Texas  and  of 
Southern  Indian  Territory,  embracing  an  area  of  over 
170,000  square  miles,  and  including  all  the  humid  and 
semi-humid  regions  of  the  State.  The  above  indicated 
topographical  and  geological  conditions  have  developed 


ARTESIAN  CONDITIONS  — EASTERN  DIVISION.     163 

five  groups  of  Artesian  water-bearing  strata  with  corre- 
sponding Artesian  areas,  which  are  located  by  Professor 
Hill  as  follows,  the  geological  age  of  the  water-bearing 
stratum  being  appended  in  each  case :  — 

1.  Coastal  wells  of  Galveston,  Houston,  Gonzales,  etc. 

Fayette  sands. 

2.  East  Texas  or  timber  belt  wells  of  Marshall,  Robert- 

son, etc.     Eolignitic  and  glauconite  sands. 

3.  Dallas,  Denison,  and  Pottsboro  wells.     Lower  Cross 

Timber  sands. 

4.  The  Fort  Worth-Waco  system. 

a.  Upper  Division.     Paluxy  sands. 
1}.  Lower  Division.     Trinity  sands  and  alternating 
beds. 

Each  of  these  systems  is  said  to  be  of  great  im- 
portance economically,  and  a  minute  description  of 
them  follows  in  the  report  next  under  examination, 
of  which  the  more  important  points  will  here  be  in- 
dicated. 

As  stated  above,  the  wells  in  the  vicinity  of  Galves- 
ton  and  Houston  are  supplied  with  water  from  the 
Fayette  sands.  The  region  of  the  "  Coast  Prairie,"  as 
this  division  of  the  State  is  called  by  Professor  Hill,  is 
said  to  extend  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles  into 
the  interior.  It  is  a  flat,  timberless  plain,  and  not  ele- 
vated at  its  interior  margin  more  than  200  feet  above 
the  Gulf.  Its  geological  age  is  late  Quaternary,  and 
it  is  underlain  by  "  several  sheets  of  Artesian  water- 
bearing strata,  the  same  as  those  constituting  the 
surface  of  the  next  regions  inland,  and  from  which  Gal- 
veston,  Houston,  and  many  other  places  have  secured 


164  THE  WASHINGTON  COUNTY  PRAIRIES. 

Artesian  water."  Furthermore  it  is  said,  "  There  are  no 
doubt  many  of  these  water-bearing  strata  beneath  the 
Coast  Prairie,  for  there  are  several  thousand  feet  of 
porous  sands  at  slight  intervals,  of  the  Fayette  sands 
and  Eocene  systems,  and  future  experimentation  will 
yield  magnificent  results  as  yet  unattained."  l 

West  of  the  Coast  Prairies  is  another  region  desig- 
nated as  the  "Washington  County  Black  Prairies." 
This  is  characterized  by  a  rich,  black,  sandy  soil,  de- 
rived from  the  disintegration  of  a  friable  sandstone, 
which  is  a  water-bearing  formation,  and  which  supplies 
the  cities  of  Galveston  and  Houston.  This  is  the 
formation  designated  as  the  "Fayette  sands,"  and  it 
is  thought  to  be  of  Miocene  or  Pliocene  age.  These 
porous  strata  are  considered  by  Professor  Hill  as  being 
able  to  supply  the  whole  Coast  Prairie  region  with 
water — a  matter  of  great  importance  in  the  arid  south- 
western portion  of  the  State. 

Immediately  west  of  the  Coast  and  Washington 
County  Prairies,  north  of  the  Colorado,  is  a  region  said 
to  be  very  different  in  its  geological  and  agricultural 
character  from  those  previously  described.  It  is  desig- 
nated as  the  "  East  Texas  or  timbered  region,"  and  is  a 
continuation  of  the  great  "'Atlantic  Timber  Belt," 
which  marks  the  interior  of  the  Coastal  Plain  from 
New  Jersey  to  Texas,  extending  to  a  slight  distance 

1  The  water-supply  from  the  Artesian  wells  of  the  cities  of  Galveston 
and  Houston  has  already  been  noticed  in  the  present  volume,  (see  ante, 
pp.  84,  86,)  the  information  there  given  having  been  taken  from  a  work 
issued  by  the  State  Geological  Survey  of  Texas,  and  bearing  the  date  of 
June,  1893.  The  practical  results  of  Artesian  well  boring  in  this  part  of 
the  State  as  there  described  seem  far  less  important  than  those  predicted 
in  Professor  Hill's  report,  especially  as  concerns  the  quality  of  the  water 
obtained  from  these  borings. 


THE  CROSS  TIMBERS.  165 

beyond  the  Colorado.  The  soil  of  this  region  is  said 
to  be  the  same  throughout  its  whole  extent,  consisting 
of  loose  sands  and  gravels,  with  some  clay,  and  there 
is  a  great  uniformity  in  its  forest  and  shrubby  vegeta- 
tion. The  increasing  aridity  of  the  climate  toward  the 
southwest  prevents  the  farther  development  of  this 
forested  belt  in  that  direction.  The  geological  age  of 
the  formation  underlying  this  belt  of  country  is  Early 
Tertiary  :  Professor  Hill  designates  it  as  "  Eolignitic  or 
basal  Tertiary."  The  strata,  being  made  up  chiefly  of 
loose  sand  or  gravel  with  alternations  of  clay,  furnish 
all  the  conditions  necessary  for  an  ample  supply  of 
water,  the  precipitation  being  very  considerable  in  this 
belt.  "  The  water  comes  to  the  surface,  as  mineral 
springs,  many  to  every  square  mile,  while  wells  are 
always  obtainable,  if  located  with  reasonable  intelli- 
gence. Artesian  wells  have  already  been  secured  in 
many  places  from  this  formation,  and  can  be  secured 
throughout  its  extent." 

Immediately  west  of  the  great  Atlantic  timber  belt, 
of  which  the  principal  features  have  been  noticed 
above,  comes  the  region  of  the  Cretaceous  prairies, 
with  which  the  so-called  "  Cross  Timber  "  belts  are  in- 
cluded. This  region  is  limited  on  the  north  by  the 
Washita  Mountains,  and  on  the  south  by  the  Quater- 
nary of  the  Rio  Grande  Valley;  it  extends  westward 
"  to  the  Coal  Measures  and  Red  Beds  west  of  the  Upper 
Cross  Timbers,  north  of  the  Colorado  River,  the  Trans- 
Pecos  Mountains,  and  the  basins  west  of  that  stream." 
The  topographic  features  and  the  vegetation  of  this 
region  are  interesting  and  peculiar  from  various  points 
of  view.  It  covers  an  area  of  over  73,000  squafe 


166  THE  BLACK  PRAIRIE  REGION. 

miles,  or  more  than  one  fourth  of  the  whole  State,  and 
equals  all  New  England  in  extent.  This  prairie  region 
is  the  most  fertile  and  densely  populated  part  of  Texas, 
for  on  it  are  situated  most  of  the  important  inland 
towns.  It  is  the  "  rich,  black-waxy,  and  other  calca- 
reous soils  "  of  this  region  to  which  this  part  of  the 
State  owes  its  prosperity.  This  district  is  "uniquely 
Texan,  as  far  as  the  United  States  are  concerned,  con- 
stituting a  distinct  geographic  region,  which  in  every 
topographic,  economic,  and  cultured  aspect  should  not 
be  compared  with  other  portions  of  our  country." 

The  Main  Black  Prairie  Region,  as  Professor  Hill 
calls  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Cretaceous  Prairie  division 
of  the  State,  extends  through  the  whole  length  of 
Texas,  having  in  its  widest  part  a  breadth  of  over  a 
hundred  miles.  It  is  a  level  plain,  with  a  slope  toward 
the  east  so  small  as  to  be  almost  imperceptible,  and 
an  elevation  of  from  400  to  600  feet.  The  streams  by 
which  it  is  intersected  do  not  cut  deep  enough  below 
the  general  level  to  destroy  the  characteristic  flatness 
of  the  wide  divides.  Its  surface  is  covered  by  a  deep 
black  clay  soil,  which  when  wet  becomes  excessively 
tenacious  —  so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  it  is  usually  des- 
ignated as  "  black- waxy."  1 

1  Of  this  soil  Professor  Hill  says,  "  It  is  rich  in  lime,  which,  acting 
upon  the  vegetation  by  complicated  changes,  causes  the  black  color." 
This  is  an  entire  mistake,  for  there  is  no  such  reaction  of  lime  on  organic 
matter  known.  The  real  cause  of  this  dark  color  is  the  fineness  of  the 
soil,  by  which  the  complete  decomposition  of  the  organic  matter  which 
it  contains,  and  which  has  resulted  from  the  growth  of  vegetation  upon 
it,  has  been  more  or  less  hindered.  Of  this  condition  of  things  we  see 
a  most  excellent  illustration  in  the  "  Black  Earth "  of  Southeastern 
Russia  (the  so-called  tschornozem),  which  is  of  very  dark  color,  rich  in 
organic  matter,  and  exceedingly  fine  in  texture.  The  almost  constant 
presence  of  organic  matter  in  the  bituminous  shales  of  various  geological 


THE  LOWER  CROSS   TIMBERS.  167 

The  geological  formations  underlying  the  Black 
Prairie  region  are  all  of  Cretaceous  age.  The  sands  of 
its  eastern  edge  are  the  outcrop  of  the  extreme  upper 
division  of  this  series  —  the  so-called  "  Arenaceous  "  or 
"  Glauconitic."  The  Main  Black  Prairie  division  has 
at  the  surface  the  "  chalky  clays,"  belonging  to  the 
"Ponderosa  marls." l  The  "  White  Rock  escarpment/' 
which  is  an  outcrop  of  a  chalky  rock,  forming  a  nar- 
row strip,  averaging  two  miles  in  width,  which  extends 
along  a  portion  of  the  western  border  of  the  "  black- 
waxy  belt,"  in  the  northern  division  of  the  Black 
Prairie  is  the  Austin-Dallas  chalk,  averaging  about 
300  feet  in  thickness,  and  lying  immediately  below  the 
Ponderosa  marls. 

The  belt  called  "  the  Lower  Cross  Timbers,"  which 
extends  along  the  western  and  northern  border  of  the 
northern  division  of  the  Black  Prairie  region,  is  a  strip 
of  country  nearly  180  miles  in  length  from  north  to 
south,  and  but  seldom  exceeding  ten  miles  in  width,  but 
bending  round  to  the  northwest  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  State,  and  there  having  a  development  east  and 
west  of  over  one  hundred  miles.  "  The  occurrence  of 
this  peculiar  ribbon  of  upland  timber  between  two  vast 
stretches  of  prairie  had  long  been  a  subject  of  in- 
quiry until  the  writer,  in  1887,  investigated  and  pub- 
lished its  geology,  and  showed  that  the  cause  of  this 
forest  growth  was  the  sandy  soil  and  substructure, 

ages  is  a  fact  of  similar  import,  while  the  formation  of  coal  and  lignite 
was  unquestionably  largely  dependent  on  conditions  which  favored  the 
burying  of  vegetation  under  fine  detrital  material  by  which  the  air  was 
more  or  less  completely  excluded,  while  the  process  of  decomposition 
was  beginning.  See  "  United  States,"  etc.,  p.  212. 

1  So  called  from  the  characteristic  fossil  of  the  formation,  Exogyra 
ponderosa. 


168  FORESTS  OF  THE  CROSS  TIMBERS, 

which  was  the  outcrop  of   a  rock  sheet  marking  the 
beginning  of  the  Black  Prairie  series  of  rocks."  1 

That  division  of  the  State  of  Texas  which  Professor 
Hill  calls  the  "  Grand  Prairie/'  and  which  adjoins  the 

1  See  an  article  by  Professor  Hill  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science, 
(3),  Vol.  XXXIII.  pp.  291-303,  entitled  "The  Topography  and  Geol- 
ogy of  the  Cross  Timbers  and  surrounding  Regions  in  Northern  Texas." 
This  article  is  accompanied  by  a  sketch  map  of  that  State,  on  which  its 
salient  topographical  features  are  indicated.  On  that  map  the  Upper  and 
Lower  Cross  Timbers  are  represented  as  running  parallel  with  each  other 
for  a  great  distance,  maintaining  nearly  the  same  width,  but  uniting 
toward  the  north  and  finally  disappearing  in  that  direction.  Various 
theories  previously  held  by  writers  on  the  peculiar  botanic  features  of 
this  region  are  mentioned  in  this  article.  One  of  these  is,  that  they 
represent  arms  or  inlets  of  the  Tertiary  Sea;  another  is,  that  they 
are  the  beds  of  extinct  lakes;  and  a  third,  that  they  represent  the 
channels  of  Quaternary  rivers,  the  directions  of  which  indicate  the 
former  general  slope  of  the  surface  of  the  country.  Professor  Hill, 
after  explaining  that  the  soil  of  the  Cross  Timbers  is  the  detritus  of 
arenaceous  strata  occupying  well-defined  horizons  in  the  geological  series, 
gives  the  following  as  the  reason  why  the  timber  confines  itself  to  these 
arenaceous  belts :  "  They  afford  a  suitable  matrix  for  the  penetration  of 
the  roots  of  trees,  and  a  constant  reservoir  for  moisture,  thus  furnishing 
two  of  the  greatest  essentials  to  forest  growth."  The  present  writer's 
long-continued  study  of  the  conditions  favoring  the  growth  or  absence 
of  timber  in  general,  and  especially  in  the  prairie  region  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley,  had  long  ago  led  him  to  form  conclusions  in  part  similar 
to  those  here  enunciated  by  Professor  Hill  (see  references  furnished  on 
page  161  of  this  volume).  That  the  question  of  the  presence  or  absence 
of  moisture  is  a  matter  of  importance  as  bearing  on  this  question  can- 
not, however,  be  admitted,  since  abundant  evidence  can  be  furnished 
going  to  prove  that  over  certain  well-defined  areas  the  fineness  of  the 
soil  is  the  essential  factor  in  causing  the  absence  of  the  forests  by 
which  these  treeless  regions  are  surrounded,  and  that  trees  will  grow  in 
abundance  on  a  soil  which  is  not  at  all  retentive  of  moisture,  provided 
it  is  of  so  coarse  a  texture  that  the  air  can  have  easy  access  to  their  roots. 
Of  course  a  certain  amount  of  moisture  is  essential  to  the  development 
of  arboreal  vegetation  in  general,  but  the  question  in  regard  to  the 
growth  of  trees  in  the  Cross  Timbers  is  precisely  similar  to  the  "  prairie 
question  "  in  general,  which  is  this :  Why  is  there  absolutely  no  forest 
growth  over  a  certain  area,  when  another  adjacent  area  precisely  similarly 
situated  as  to  the  amount  of  precipitation  is  heavily  timbered,  even  when 
the  soil  in  the  latter  case  is  evidently  less  retentive  of  moisture  than  is 
that  of  the  adjacent  prairie  or  treeless  region? 


THE   COMANCHE  SERIES.  169 

Black  Prairie  on  the  west,  is  underlain  by  rocks  belong- 
ing to  the  Lower  Cretaceous,  and  it  is  said  by  him  to 
differ  from  the  Black  Prairie  region  in  nearly  every 
physical  feature.  The  strata  of  this  division  lie  almost 
horizontally,  dipping  eastward  at  a  slightly  greater 
angle  than  the  topographical  slope.  The  eastern  edge 
of  the  Grand  Prairie  is  between  500  and  600  feet  in 
altitude  above  the  sea-level  for  a  distance  of  300  miles 
from  its  beginning  in  Indian  Territory,  while  its  west- 
ern edge  varies  from  1,000  feet  at  Red  River  to  3,000 
on  the  Rio  Grande. 

The  "Comanche  Series,"  as  this  division  of  the 
Lower  Cretaceous  is  called  by  Professor  Hill,  consists 
of  almost  horizontal  sheets  of  rock  "of  different 
degrees  of  hardness,  endurance,  and  chemical  composi- 
tion, as  well  as  different  capacities  for  the  imbibition 
and  retention  of  water." 

The  Comanche  series  varies  greatly  in  thickness, 
ranging  from  500  feet  at  its  northeastern  outcrop  to 
3,000  at  its  southwestern.  It  is  divided  into  three  dis- 
tinct and  well-marked  series:  (1)  the  Washita  or  east- 
ern and  uppermost  division;  (2)  the  Middle  Chalky, 
or  Comanche  Peak  division;  (3)  the  Trinity,  or  basal 
and  western  division.  Of  these  the  first  two  are 
impervious  and  the  last  constitutes  the  "  great  water- 
receiving  formation  of  Texas,"  and  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  with  reference  to  the  Artesian  supply  of 
the  State.  The  above  indicated  geological  divisions  of 
the  Grand  Prairie  region  are  described  in  great  detail 
by  Professor  Hill,  and  the  various  topographical  forms 
resulting  from  the  disintegration  and  erosion  of  a  se- 
ries of  rocks  the  subdivisions  of  which  differ  from  one 


170         WATER-SUPPLY  FROM  THE   CRETACEOUS. 

another  so  much  in  lithological  character  pointed  out 
and  discussed.1 

In  the  present  volume  only  some  of  the  more  impor- 
tant facts  having  reference  to  the  water-supply  of  the 
region  underlain  by  these  Cretaceous  rocks  can  be 
given.  These  "  water-features/'  as  Professor  Hill  des- 
ignates this  class  of  phenomena,  are  said  by  him  to  be 
"of  three  distinct  classes:  (1)  the  Grand  Prairie  drain- 
age or  river-system ;  (2)  the  Mammoth  Springs  of  San 
Antonio,  San  Marcos  system;  (3)  the  Waco -Fort 
Worth  and  the  Dallas-Pottsboro  Artesian  systems." 

The  river  systems  of  the  Grand  and  Black  Prairies 
appear  to  present  such  peculiarities  as  would  be  ex- 
pected in  a  region  possessing  the  topographical  and 
geological  characters  there  displayed,  coupled  with  a 
considerable  but  varying  amount  of  rainfall.  The 
valleys  of  the  streams  of  the  Edwards  Plateau  are  said 
to  be  among  the  most  beautiful  and  picturesque  fea- 
tures of  our  country,  and  it  is  thought  that  a  proper 
use  of  the  waters  of  these  streams  "would  increase 
the  productivity  of  the  region  a  thousand  fold."  The 
"Edwards  Plateau"  is  that  part  of  the  Cretaceous 
region  of  Texas  which  lies  north  of  the  Rio  Grande 
embayment,  and  south  of  the  Central  or  Fort  Worth 
division  of  the  Grand  Prairie,  from  which  it  is  sep- 
arated by  the  Colorado  River.  It  is  really  the  south- 
eastern continuation  of  the  Llano  Estacado,  and,  like 
that,  lies  mostly  in  the  arid  region  of  the  State.  It 
is  a  vast  rocky  plain  of  hard  limestone  covered  with  a 

1  See  not  only  the  Report  here  under  examination,  but  also  various 
papers  by  Professor  Hill  and  others  in  the  Reports  of  the  Arkansas  and 
Texas  Geological  Surveys  and  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  for 
January  and  February,  1890. 


SAN  MARCOS -SAN  ANTONIO  SYSTEM. 

scrubby  growth  of  mesquite,  nopal  (Opuntia),  and  "false 
laurel/'  and  is  said  to  be  "good  grazing  ground  for 
sheep."  In  spite  of  the  aridity  of  its  surface,  and  the 
small  rainfall  of  the  region  in  general,  the  Edwards 
Plateau  is  considered  by  Professor  Hill  as  being  a 
"  great  water  reservoir  of  priceless  value  to  the  State 
of  Texas,"  and  it  is  said  that  "  the  time  will  soon  come 
when  it  will  be  considered  criminal  to  permit  one  drop 
of  its  valuable  flow  to  reach  the  sea  wasted." 

The  reason  for  the  above  extraordinary  statement 
must  be  sought  in  the  fact  that  the  source  of  the  spring 
waters  which  supply  the  streams  running  from  this 
plateau  is  thought  to  be  the  "  same  as  that  which  sup- 
plies the  wonderful  Artesian  wells  and  the  Mammoth 
Springs  of  the  San  Marcos -San  Antonio  system/' 
which  are  described  by  Professor  Hill  in  considerable  de- 
tail. Following  the  boundary  of  the  Grand  and  Black 
Prairie  regions  from  Dallas  to  Del  Rio,  a  distance  of 
400  miles,  there  is  a  series  of  most  remarkable  springs 
"  which  rise  out  of  the  ground  and  flow  off  as  rivers. 
These  springs  are  often  of  such  magnitude  and  beauty 
that  it  is  impossible  to  convey  a  proper  conception 
of  them.  They  do  not  break  out  from  bluffs  or  fall  in 
cascades,  but  appear  as  pools,  often  in  the  level  prairie, 
filled  with  water  of  a  beautiful  blue  color,  which  flows 
silently  away  by  the  outlet  which  drains  them."  The 
trend  of  the  line  along  which  these  springs  are  de- 
veloped coincides  almost  exactly  with  that  of  the  great 
Austin -Del  Rio  strike  fault  which  also  follows  the 
division  between  the  Grand  and  Black  Prairies.  It  is 
through  the  fissures  formed  along  this  fault  line  that 
the  water  finds  its  way  to  the  surface.  These  springs 


172  SPRINGS  — SAN    ANTONIO  AND  DEL  RIO. 

are   therefore  considered  by  Professor  Hill   as   being 
"  natural  Artesian  wells." l 

San  Antonio,  Del  Rio,  San  Marcos,  New  Braunfels, 
and  Austin  are  mentioned  as  possessing  the  most  con- 
spicuous of  these  springs,  but  there  are  "magnificent 
springs  "  at  several  other  localities.  The  largest  group 
is  at  the  head  of  the  San  Antonio  River,  near  the  city 
of  that  name.  The  volume  of  these  springs  is  said  to 
be  nearly  50,000,000  gallons  per  day,  and  this  outflow 
forms  a  lake,  from  which  the  river  San  Antonio  flows 
through  the  heart  of  the  city,  which  has  48,000  in- 
habitants, and  is  from  this  source  abundantly  supplied 
with  water,  used  not  only  for  ordinary  domestic  pur- 
poses, but  to  a  considerable  extent  for  irrigation. 
The  springs  at  Del  Rio  are  next  in  importance  to  those 
at  San  Antonio.  They  break  out  at  the  edge  of  the 
Edwards  Plateau,  about  two  miles  from  the  town  and 
near  the  Rio  Grande.  The  outflow  of  the  Del  Rio 
springs  is  not  stated  with  exactness,  but  it  is  said  to 
give  rise  to  a  "  bold  rushing  stream  "  which  excels  the 
Rio  Grande  in  volume.  The  outflow  of  the  springs  at 
San  Marcos  is  said  to  be  at  least  20,000  gallons  per 
minute.  Those  of  Austin  are  beautifully  situated,  and 
are  the  favorite  resort  of  the  people  of  that  city,  being 
surrounded  by  "pleasing  groves  of  pecan  timber  and 
picturesque  rocks."  Their  outflow  equals  "  many  thou- 
sands of  gallons  per  minute." 

1  This  is  a  misnomer,  for  just  as  properly  might  all  springs  be  called 
"  natural  Artesian  wells  "  as  these.     The  essential  fact  in  an  Artesian 
well  is  that  it  is  artificial. 

2  Around  this  marvellous  group  of  springs,  and  upon  the  banks  of  its 
outflow,  were  located  the  most  ancient  Indian  settlements,  or  Pueblos,  of 
Texas.     These  were  six  in  number,  with  extensive  surrounding  farms 
and  gardens. 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  -GRAND  AND  BLACK  PRAIRIES.    173 

An  investigation  of  the  waters  and  their  tempera- 
tures rising  along  this  remarkable  line  of  springs,  and 
comparisons  of  the  facts  thus  obtained  with  those  re- 
sulting from  the  examination  of  various  Artesian  wells 
in  that  region,  prove  that  these  are  all  of  similar  ori- 
gin and  nature,  and  that  the  source  from  which  their 
outflow  is  derived  is  the  Trinity  division  of  the  Co- 
manche  sands,  which  are  the  foundation  of  the  Grand 
Prairie,  and  whose  waters  are  absorbed  on  an  outcrop 
at  a  higher  altitude  along  its  western  edge. 

We  next  reach  the  consideration  of  the  Artesian 
well  system  of  the  Grand  and  Black  Prairies,  of  which 
an  extraordinary  development  has  taken  place  within 
the  past  five  years,  so  that  Professor  Hill  feels  justified 
in  saying  that  in  numerous  places  in  that  region  "  mag- 
nificent flows  of  water  have  been  secured  and  what  ten 
years  ago  was  in  many  places  a  poorly  watered  district 
now  abounds  in  magnificent  Artesian  wells,  which 
supply  water  to  cities  and  farms  in  quantity  large 
enough  to  make  many  new  industries  possible,  besides 
furnishing  water  to  irrigate  many  thousands  of  acres." 
This  Artesian  area  extends  from  Denton  County,  near 
Red  River,  to  Del  Rio,  on  the  Rio  Grande,  a  distance 
of  about  448  miles,  with  an  average  breadth  of  forty 
miles.1  Over  this  region  the  geological  features  possess 
great  uniformity,  but  the  wells  vary  greatly  in  depth 
and  amount  of  flow.  The  beginning  of  this  business 

1  These  are  dimensions  of  the  Artesian  area  in  question  as  given  by 
Professor  Hill,  and  it  is  added  "  that  the  area  over  which  flowing  wells 
may  be  obtained  is  about  the  size  of  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  or  North  or 
South  Dakota."  But  the  figures  here  quoted  give  as  the  area  in  question 
17,920  square  miles,  while  that  of  Minnesota  is  83,365  square  .miles,  and 
that  of  Nebraska  77,510. 


174  ARTESIAN  WELLS. 

seems  to  have  been  at  Fort  Worth,  where,  ten  or  twelve 
years  ago,  water  was  obtained  from  wells  only  300  feet 
deep,  but  "  not  until  the  past  year  has  Fort  Worth 
discovered  that  her  drills  had  not  yet  penetrated  the 
lowest  and  greatest  water-bearing  strata."  The  success 
of  these  operations  at  Fort  Worth  led  to  "Artesian 
experiments  "  all  through  the  Grand  and  Black  Prairie 
region.  A  few  wells  were  failures,  but  hundreds  were 
successful,  "  and  to-day  most  of  the  cities  of  the  State 
which  before  this  Artesian  epoch  were  without  good 
water  are  supplied  with  an  abundance.  .  .  .  When  it 
is  considered  that  the  first  water  was  experimentally 
reached  only  twelve  years  ago,  and  the  greater  under- 
lying sheets  only  four  years  ago,  the  future  possibili- 
ties are  beyond  estimate." 

The  water-bearing  formations  which  furnish  the  Ar- 
tesian water  of  the  Black  and  Grand  Prairie  region, 
of  the  extent  of  which  and  of  whose  presumed  possi- 
bilities, according  to  the  views  of  Professor  Hill,  an 
attempt  has  been  made  to  give  an  idea  in  the  preced- 
ing pages,  are  as  follows,  the  enumeration  being  made 
from  above  downward  :  (1)  the  Lower  Cross  Timber, 
or  Denison  (in  part)  and  Dakota  sands ;  (2)  the  Paluxy 
sands ;  (3)  portions  of  the  Glen  Rose  beds  ;  (4)  the 
Trinity  or  Upper  Cross  Timber  sands.  These  all  in- 
cline to  the  eastward,  as  already  mentioned,  and  at  a 
slightly  greater  angle  than  the  topographical  slope,  and 
these  different  water-bearing  formations  are  separated 
by  more  or  less  impermeable  or  non- water-bearing 
strata,  so  that  the  farther  east  the  borings  are  made 
the  greater  the  depth  which  must  be  attained  in  order 
that  any  particular  water-bearing  formation  be  inter- 


BLACK  AND  GRAND  PRAIRIES.  175 

sected  in  the  bore-hole.  Thus  a  drill  on  the  western 
edge  of  the  Black  Prairie  would  begin  in  the  Lower 
Cross  Timber  sands,  while  on  its  eastern  edge  the 
lowest  water  beds  of  the  Trinity  sands  would  not  be 
reached  until  the  bore-hole  had  penetrated  to  a  depth 
of  between  3,500  and  4,000  feet,  since  it  would  be 
necessary  to  bore  through  the  entire  thickness  of  the 
Cretaceous. 

The  Artesian  wells  of  the  Dallas-Pottsboro  group  of 
the  Black  Prairie  region  all  have  their  origin  in  the 
Lower  Cross  Timber  (or  Dakota)  sands.  The  wells  of 
Pottsboro,  Grayson  County,  at  a  depth  of  250  feet,  fur- 
nish 25,600  gallons  of  water  per  day.  At  Dallas  several 
wells  obtained  Artesian  water  from  the  Lower  Cross 
Timber  sands,  at  depths  varying  from  672  to  800  feet. 
This  formation  crops  out  about  twenty  miles  west  of 
that  city,  and  "  furnishes,  in  most  instances,  an  abun- 
dant supply."  The  Lower  Cross  Timber  sands  are  said 
to  have  in  this  vicinity  "  several  veins  of  water,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  they  have  many  clay  beds  alternating 
with  them."  At  Denison  the  same  sands  are  said  to  be 
porous  and  ferruginous,  and  to  have  a  "great  imbib- 
ing and  transmitting  capacity."  Here  a  vertical  well, 
twenty-five  feet  in  diameter,  has  been  sunk,  and  from 
it  horizontal  tunnels  run,  so  as  to  increase  the  yield 
of  water  and  at  the  same  time  form  a  reservoir,  from 
which  it  is  pumped  and  distributed  through  the  city. 
The  total  area  of  the  Lower  Cross  Timber  sands  in 
Texas  is  said  to  have  been  determined  by  accurate 
survey  to  be  794  square  miles.  The  rainfall  over  this 
area  is  stated  by  Professor  Hill  at  thirty-six  inches, 
and  it  is  thought  by  him  that  at  least  one  half  of  this 


176  ARTESIAN   WELLS  — FORT  WORTH. 

percolates  the  soil  and  becomes  the  source  of  Artesian 
water.1 

Over  a  considerable  part  of  the  Lower  Cross  Tim- 
ber area  Artesian  wells  do  not  exist  and  are  not  to  be 
expected  from  that  formation :  they  can  only  be  ob- 
tained at  points  to  the  eastward  of  its  western  outcrop, 
and  at  a  lower  altitude.  But  "negative  or  nonflowing  " 
wells,  in  which  the  water  rises  nearly  to  the  surface, 
can  be  had  throughout  the  Black  Prairie  region,  and 
from  these  the  water  can  be  raised  by  windmills  or 
steam-engines,  in  quantity  sufficient  for  domestic  pur- 
poses, or  even  for  garden  irrigation.  But  there  are 
other  "  great  sheets  <  of  Artesian  water "  lying  below 
the  Lower  Cross  Timber  sands  of  the  Dallas-Pottsboro 
area  which,  when  reached  by  the  drill,  are  expected  to 
furnish  a  much  larger  supply  than  that  at  present  ob- 
tained, as  has  been  the  case  at  and  near  Fort  Worth. 

At  the  last-mentioned  locality  the  first  successful 
wells  in  the  Grand  Prairie  region  were  drilled,  the 
water  from  which  came  from  the  Paluxy  sands.  As 
this  formation  is  of  very  moderate  thickness,  and  conse- 
quently having  but  a  limited  receiving  area,  the  wells 
being  increased  to  over  a  hundred  in  number,  the  sup- 
ply of  water  soon  gave  out,  and  in  order  to  raise  it 
to  the  surface  pumping  became  necessary.  The  depth 
of  various  wells  near  Fort  Worth  obtaining  water  from 
the  Paluxy  sands  is  usually  between  400  and  500  feet. 

1  No  experiments  seem  to  have  been  made  anywhere  in  this  or  any 
other  part  of  the  United  States  to  determine  how  much  of  the  rainfall 
does  actually  penetrate  the  soil.  The  precipitation  in  the  district  under 
consideration  in  the  text  is  so  much  larger  than  that  in  the  arid  region 
of  the  country  in  general,  that  a  correspondingly  larger  percolation  is  to 
be  expected.  (See  ante,  pp.  105-108.) 


ARTESIAN  WELLS  — WACO.  177 

At  Waco,  also,  a  flow  of  water  is  usually  secured  at  a 
depth  of  about  1,100  feet,  and  this  is  supposed  to  come 
from  the  Paluxy  sands.  The  importance  of  the  wells 
from  this  formation  in  the  Fort  Worth  -  Waco  region  to 
the  stock-raising  industry  is  said  to  be  "  incalculable  "  ; 
for  irrigation  it  would  appear  not  to  be  well  adapted, 
since  it  is  stated  that  an  improper  application  of  it  — 
sprinkling  the  growing  plants  with  water,  namely, 
instead  of  soaking  the  soil  —  has  created  a  strong 
prejudice  against  it.  Professor  Hill  remarks,  however, 
16  that  it  would  be  improvident  to  stop  a  well  in  the 
Paluxy  sands  .  .  .  since  they  are  but  the  beginning  of 
a  much  more  abundant  and  valuable  supply  that  every- 
where underlies  them." 

Waco  on  the  Brazos  River,  at  an  elevation  of  431 
to  500  feet  above  the  sea-level,  is  the  place  where  the 
first  successful  attempt  was  made  to  obtain  water  from 
the  Trinity  sands,  the  geological  position  of  which 
water-bearing  formation  has  already  been  indicated. 
The  volume  of  the  flow  from  this  well  is  nowhere 
distinctly  stated  in  the  Report  here  under  examination ; 
it  is  said,  however,  that  "  it  was  so  great  (estimated  at 
from  500,000  to  1,000,000  gallons  per  day)  that  it 
created  great  rejoicing  and  has  been  the  cause  of  un- 
told value  in  the  development  and  improvement  of 
the  industrial  and  hygienic  conditions  of  the  city." 
Further,  it  is  said  that  "  the  discovery  of  this  flow  im- 
mediately led  to  the  drilling  of  other  wells,  flowing  an 
aggregate  of  many  million  gallons  per  day,  and  sup- 
plying water  not  only  for  all  public  and  domestic  pur- 
poses, but  power  for  various  industries,  such  as  clothing 
factories,  wood-working  machinery,  and  irrigation." 

12 


178  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — WACO. 

A  statement  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Waco  Board 
of  Trade,  dated  July  7,  1891,  is  to  the  effect  that 
there  were  at  that  time  in  and  around  Waco  eleven 
overflowing  wells  and  two  approaching  completion. 
The  depth  of  these  wells  is  given  as  being  from  1,607 
to  1,896  feet,  nine  of  them  being  between  1,800  and 
1,900  feet  deep ;  the  diameter  of  the  bore  is  in  most 
cases  eight  inches,  and  the  temperature  of  the  water  is 
from  97°  to  103°.  The  flow  of  these  wells  seems  in  no 
case  to  have  been  measured,  but  the  estimate  for  the 
most  copious  one  is  1,200,000  gallons  per  day,  and  for 
the  least  300,000,  while  the  flow  of  seven  is  estimated 
at  1,000,000  gallons  or  over.  Professor  Hill  says  the 
water  of  the  Waco  wells  is  "  soft  and  tasteless."  In 
the  communication  from  the  Waco  Board  of  Trade  it 
is  said  the  water  of  the  Bell  well  (one  of  those  of 
which  the  statistics  are  furnished)  was  analyzed  by  the 
"  leading  chemist  of  Chicago,"  and  that  it  was  found 
to  contain  53.8201  grains  to  the  gallon  of  foreign 
matter,  of  which  23.9583  grains  were  "sodium  potas- 
sium sulphates"  and  20.6597  grains  "sodium  carbonate 
and  bicarbonate."  Furthermore,  it  is  remarked  that 
"there  is  no  appreciable  difference  in  the  taste  of  the 
water  of  any  of  these  wells ;  therefore  we  must  as- 
sume that  one  analysis  governs  all."  1  From  an  exam- 
ination of  the  records  kept  by  the  borer  of  one  of  the 
Waco  Artesian  wells  (the  "  Padgett,"  1,886  feet  deep) 
Professor  Hill  concluded  that  the  main  flow  was  really 
from  strata  876  feet  below  the  horizon  of  the  Paluxy 

1  The  composition  of  this  water,  as  stated  above,  is  very  remarkable, 
and  it  is  desirable  that  the  results  of  this  analysis  should  be  confirmed,  if 
possible,  by  other  analyses. 


DEEP  WELLS  — FORT  WORTH.  179 

sands,  and  "  especially  the  lowest  ninety-eight  feet 
of  sands." 

After  these  results  had  been  attained  at  Waco  — 
which  was  in  1890,  —  the  City  Council  of  Fort  Worth 
determined  to  "  fully  test  the  possibilities  of  the  Arte- 
sian water-supply  for  the  city  waterworks'  use."  For 
this  purpose  a  boring  was  begun  "at  about  the  highest 
point  in  the  city,"  and  water  struck  at  various  levels : 
of  these  results  it  is  said  that  "  could  all  of  these 
flows  have  been  put  together,  then  they  would  have  dis- 
charged fully  500  gallons  per  minute,  or  720,000  per 
day,  and  at  a  point  142  feet  above  the  Trinity  River." 
But  the  last  flow  (struck  at  1,127  feet  below  the  sur- 
face) not  having  sufficient  pressure  to  carry  it  to  a 
standpipe  one  hundred  feet  high,  it  was  cased  off,  and 
the  boring  continued  in  search  of  a  still  stronger  flow. 
At  the  time  Professor  Hill's  report  was  handed  in  this 
experimental  well  had  reached  a  depth  of  nearly  2,800 
feet,  and  it  was  intended  to  continue  the  bore  to  a 
depth  of  3,000,  if  an  increased  flow  should  not  be  ob- 
tained before  that  depth  was  reached. 

Professor  Hill's  comments  on  this  enterprise  and  his 
sanguine  expectations  with  regard  to  its  probable  results 
may  perhaps  be  best  given  in  his  own  words :  "  This 
remarkable  discovery  has  been  farther  demonstrated. 
First,  the  Texas  Brewery,  whose  location  is  fifty  feet 
lower  than  Tucker's  Hill,1  sank  their  well  to  the  first 
or  top  Artesian  vein,  and  obtained  a  flow  of  upwards 
of  240  gallons  per  minute,  with  a  pressure  which  car- 
ries the  water  to  the  top  of  their  immense  building 

1  It  was  on  this  elevation  that  the  City  Council's  experimental  well, 
mentioned  above,  was  bored. 


180  ARTESIAN  WELLS  — FORT    WORTH. 

ninety  feet  above  the  ground.  Encouraged  by  this 
success,  the  packing-house  company  began  a  well  at 
their  house  on  the  north  side  at  a  point  120  feet  lower 
than  the  top  of  Tucker's  Hill,  and  it  has  now  been 
drilled  through  the  first  and  second  Artesian  veins, 
and  it  is  flowing  at  the  rate  of  over  800,000  gallons 
in  twenty-four  hours.  They  will  continue  the  well  to 
and  through  the  lower  Artesian  vein,  when  the  flow 
will  (if  the  Tucker  Hill  discoveries  hold  good  for  the 
north  part  of  the  city)  be  fully  1,500,000  gallons  in 
twenty-four  hours.  The  packing-house  well  is  undoubt- 
edly flowing  more  water  in  twenty-four  hours  than  any 
other  Artesian  well  in  the  State  of  Texas  by  at  least 
one  third,  and  when  the  third  Artesian  vein  is  reached 
it  will  be  the  '  Jumbo/  the  geyser  well  of  the  State. 
The  city  experiment  has  demonstrated  that  Fort  Worth 
has  the  Artesian  water  in  quantities  sufficient  to  sup- 
ply a  city  of  1,000,000  people  should  occasion  ever  re- 
quire it.  Ten  wells  located  down  in  the  valley,  above 
high-water  mark,  will  supply  over  10,000,000  gallons 
of  pure  Artesian  water  each  twenty-four  hours,  and 
the  water  is  pure;  there  is  no  mineral  of  any  kind  in 
solution  in  it ;  it  is  as  clear  as  a  diamond,  as  pure  as 
melted  snow}  Surely  if  there  is  an  Artesian  city  in 
Texas  it  is  Fort  Worth." 

Under  the  heading  "  The  Limits  of  the  Fort  Worth  - 

1  The  water  in  regard  to  which  these  statements  are  made  is  water 
which  had  not  been  obtained  at  the  time  this  paragraph  (Italicized  by 
the  present  writer)  was  written,  so  that  no  analysis  of  it  could  have  been 
made.  The  water  from  the  same  geological  position  as  that  from  which 
that  of  Fort  Worth  was  expected  to  be  obtained  held  in  solution,  ac- 
cording to  the  analysis  of  Chicago's  "  leading  chemist,"  cited  on  page 
178,  fifty-three  grains  to  the  gallon  of  mineral  matter. 


EDWARDS  PLATEAU.  181 

Waco  System  "  an  attempt  is  made  by  Professor  Hill 
to  fix  the  position  of  the  line  in  Texas  beyond  which 
the  dip  of  the  strata  of  the  principal  water-bearing 
formation  of  Texas  will  carry  it  to  such  a  depth  that 
it  will  be  u  beyond  practical  reach  for  economic  use." 
From  2,500  to  3,000  feet  seems  to  have  been  fixed 
upon  as  this  depth,  and  this  limit,  it  is  said,  will  be 
found  in  the  eastern  belt  of  the  Black  Prairie  region, 
between  the  great  Atlantic  Timber  belt  and  the  line 
of  outcrop  of  the  Austin-Dallas  chalk.  The  only  por- 
tion of  the  Grand  and  Black  Prairie  regions  between 
the  Colorado  and  the  latitude  of  Denton  where  water 
cannot  be  made  to  flow  is  on  the  tops  and  slopes  of  the 
high  mesas  ("  mountains"  in  local  parlance)  which  form 
the  high  divides  of  the  stream  valleys  of  the  western 
half  of  the  Grand  Prairie,  and  are  higher  in  altitude 
than  the  receiving  area  of  the  Upper  Cross  Timbers. 

The  Black  and  Grand  Prairie  regions  south  of  the 
Colorado  are  separated  from  those  to  the  north  of  that 
river,  in  respect  to  their  Artesian  conditions,  for  two 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  the  great  fault  which  ex- 
tends from  north  of  Austin  to  beyond  Del  Rio  breaks 
the  continuity  of  the  stratification,  and,  secondly,  this 
fault  is  accompanied  by  a  series  of  protrusions  of  ba- 
saltic rock,  which  appears  in  more  than  twenty  places 
along  the  line  of  fracture.  These  conditions  render  it 
impossible  to  "  predict  the  continuity  of  any  area  of 
flowing  wells  in  the  region,  although  the  latter  are 
numerous  and  abundant,  while  the  great  Artesian 
springs  here  attain  their  greatest  development." 

The  mass  of  the  Edwards  Plateau  is  mostly  com- 
posed of  the  "  spongy  strata  of  the  Glen  Rose  and 


182  UTILIZATION   OF  ARTESIAN  WATER. 

Trinity  beds,  capped  on  the  summits  of  the  impervious 
Caprina  limestone."  The  surface  of  this  plateau  is, 
therefore,  dry  and  poorly  adapted  for  agriculture,  and 
the  region  has  a  very  scanty  population.  The  sides  of 
this  table-land  are,  however,  deeply  scored  with  ravines 
or  "  canons,"  which  usually  have  water  and  numerous 
springs,  and  constitute  the  agriculturally  valuable  por- 
tion of  the  region ;  but  this  is  said  to  be  "  not  more 
than  one  per  cent  of  the  vast  area  for  which  the  springs 
might  be  available."  It  is  along  the  eastern  edge  of 
the  plateau,  where  the  rainfall  is  considerable,  that 
these  so-called  "  Artesian  springs "  are  numerous  and 
of  considerable  volume.  They  all  flow  from  the  Trin- 
ity sands.  On  the  surface  of  the  Edwards  Plateau 
water  is  obtained  by  means  of  wells  which  at  a  depth 
of  from  300  to  500  feet  penetrate  the  Trinity  sands. 
"  All  experiments  thus  far  have  failed  to  reveal  Arte- 
sian conditions  on  this  Plateau." 

In  reference  to  the  utilization  of  the  Artesian  waters 
of  the  Black  and  Grand  Prairies,  in  general,  it  is  said 
that  the  discovery  of  this  source  of  supply  has  had  an 
incalculable  influence  upon  the  material  prosperity  of 
an  extensive  region,  to  which  it  has  given  "  new  life." 
Not  only  are  these  waters  remarkable  for  their  purity, 
but  some  of  them  possess  "  superior  medicinal  virtues, 
resembling  the  celebrated  Spas  of  Germany,  which  are 
found  in  somewhat  similar  rocks.  .  .  .  The  hygienic 
aspect  of  these  waters,  both  the  pure  and  the  medi- 
cinal, will  also  prove  of  great  value  to  the  live-stock 
interests."  In  reference  to  the  utilization  of  these 
waters  for  irrigation  Professor  Hill  remarks  as  follows  : 
"  It  is  not  my  intention  to  convey  the  idea  that  the 


RED  BEDS  REGION.  183 

Black  Prairie  region  is  subject  to  drought;  for  crops 
of  corn  and  cotton  are  often  rich  and  abundant,  but  all 
admit  that  it  has  seasons  of  rain  and  drought,  and  that, 
if  rich  now,  it  could  be  made  immensely  richer  by  irri- 
gation, and  all  the  fruits  and  vegetables  now  imported 
from  the  irrigated  lands  of  Utah  and  California  could 
be  produced  at  home."  As  no  analyses  or  detailed 
statements  of  any  kind  are  given  with  reference  to  the 
amount  and  character  of  the  saline  substances  which 
these  waters  —  some  of  which  are  confessedly  "  medi- 
cinal "  —  contain,  it  is  difficult  to  form  any  idea  of  how 
extensively,  or  for  how  long  a  period,  they  are  likely 
to  be  used  for  irrigation.  Professor  Hill's  sanguine 
expectations  of  their  future  value  for  this  purpose  are, 
however,  expressed  in  the  following  glowing  terms  : 
"  Every  drop  of  water  from  these  springs  and  wells 
can  be  utilized  for  irrigation,  and  when  the  people  of 
the  region  appreciate  the  fact  that  each  gallon  of  water 
has  a  specific  value  in  agriculture,  as  has  a  pound  of 
coal  in  industrial  enterprise,  not  one  drop  of  this  water 
will  be  allowed  to  escape  unutilized,  and  the  agri- 
cultural wealth  will  be  enormously  increased." 

That  part  of  Texas  which  is  occupied  by  Carbonif- 
erous and  older  Palaeozoic  rocks  lies  to  the  east  of  the 
"  Red  Beds  region,"  and  it  is  said  to  have  a  "  structure 
unfavorable  for  any  large  flow  of  water."  In  Burnet 
County  "  one  or  two  small  flows  have  been  secured  out 
of  hundreds  of  borings  made  with  the  diamond  drill  by 
mineral  prospectors." 

The  so-called  "  Red  Beds  region "  is,  both  from 
a  topographical  and  geological  point  of  view,  one  of 
the  most  interesting  parts  of  the  Southwestern  United 


184  RED  BEDS  REGION. 

States,  since  the  formation  thus  designated  occupies  fully 
100,000  square  miles  of  area  in  Oklahoma,  Texas,  and 
New  Mexico.  In  Texas  the  Red  Beds  lie  between  the 
Carboniferous  region  and  the  Llano  Estacado,  beginning 
near  San  Angelo,  and  widening  rapidly  toward  the 
north.  The  name  by  which  this  part  of  the  State  is 
known  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  the  "  surface  of 
the  whole  country  underlain  by  these  rocks  is  of  con- 
spicuous red  colors,  glaring  vermilion,  or  deep-brown 
chocolate  sometimes  prevailing,  varied  only  here  and 
there  by  a  bed  of  snow-white  gypsum."  It  is  in  the 
Indian  Territory  that  this  peculiar  formation  is  devel- 
oped in  its  greatest  width,  occupying  there  and  in 
Northwestern  Texas  a  district  350  miles  long  from 
north  to  south,  and  with  an  average  width  of  150 
miles,  all  an  unbroken  prairie,  with  the  exception  of 
"  small  areas  occupied  by  the  Wichita  Mountains,  and 
a  few  remnant  buttes  of  the  Grand  Prairie  and  Llano 
Estacado  formations  which  have  been  preserved  to  re- 
mind us  of  the  vast  erosion  the  region  has  undergone." 
The  geological  age  of  the  Red  Beds  ranges  from  the 
Permian  to  the  base  of  the  Comanche  series,  thus  rep- 
resenting or  occupying  the  place  in  the  geological 
series  of  the  Permian  and  Triassic,  and  probably  of 
the  Jurassic.  While  thus  comprehensive  in  their  geo- 
logical range,  the  Red  Beds  have  everywhere  the  same 
remarkable  characteristics  of  color  and  consolidation, 
and,  according  to  Professor  Hill,  "  are  probably  a  single 
unbroken  formation,  representing  the  sediments  of  an 
ancient  inland  sea,  which  extended  from  the  ninety- 
eighth  meridian  westward  to  the  Sierras  and  from  the 
Northern  United  States  nearly  to  Mexico." 


THE  LLANO  ESTACADO.  185 

Although  that  part  of  the  country  occupied  by  the 
Red  Beds  is  one  of  very  scanty  precipitation,  yet  "  sud- 
den and  excessive  rainfalls  "  do  occur  there  during  the 
summer  months,  at  which  times  the  streams  which  rise 
in  or  flow  through  this  region  "are  all  characterized 
by  their  phenomenal  vermilion  colored  freshets  known 
as  '  red  rises.' '  These  rivers  have  no  permanent  sup- 
ply of  water  from  the  Red  Beds  themselves,  but  all 
are  fed  from  the  underground  drainage  of  the  Llano 
Estacado  or  from  the  adjacent  mountains.  This  whole 
region  presents  very  unfavorable  conditions  for  water- 
supply,  springs  being  few  in  number  and  wells  "  deep 
and  scant,"  except  along  the  less  arid  eastern  border  of 
the  formation.  Neither  are  there  any  known  Artesian 
wells  in  the  Red  Bed  area.  It  is  thought,  however, 
that  water  may  be  obtained  from  wells  dug  in  certain 
lower  areas,  and  an  instance  is  cited  of  one  twenty- 
five  miles  west  of  Eddy,  on  the  Pecos,  in  New  Mexico, 
from  which  3,000  cattle  are  daily  watered  by  a  pump 
operated  by  horse-power.  From  the  peculiar  saline  and 
gypsiferous  character  of  the  formation  in  question,  it  is 
to  be  expected  that  water,  however  obtained,  will  be 
very  impure ;  and,  as  Professor  Hill  states,  "  all  deep 
wells  in  the  Red  Beds  strike  salt." 

The  water  conditions  of  the  Llano  Estacado  are,  in 
the  Report  under  consideration,  next  discussed.1  This 

1  Professor  Hill  remarks  that  "  the  name  Staked  Plains  should  be 
dropped  from  geographic  nomenclature  as  the  name  for  the  great  mesa 
to  which  it  is  applied."  This  remark  is  based  on  an  entire  misunder- 
standing of  the  meaning  of  the  Spanish  term  Llano  Estacado  on  the 
part  of  that  author,  who  says  that  "  a  glance  at  the  Spanish  dictionary 
will  show  that  it  will  be  impossible  to  translate  the  word  '  estacado  '  to 
mean  a  stake,  but  upon  the  contrary  it  means  exactly  the  opposite,  a  pal- 
isade or  wall,  which  is  a  most  appropriate  term  for  the  Llano  Estacado, 


186  THE  LLANO   ESTACADO. 

region  is  said  by  Professor  Hill  to  be  the  "  greatest 
continuous  and  least  studied  plateau  of  our  country." 
It  embraces  an  area  of  at  least  50,000  square  miles, 
and  is  practically  so  smooth  "  as  to  resemble  the  level 
of  the  ocean  at  a  dead  calm,  and  unbroken  by  trees  or 
bushes  or  deep  drained  channels,  and  carpeted  with  a 
rich  growth  of  gramma  grass." 

The  Llano  Estacado,  once  so  remote  and  difficult  of 
access,  can  now  be  easily  reached  by  means  of  the 
Texas  Pacific  Railroad,  which  intersects  it,  crossing 
the  Pecos  River  at  the  town  of  that  name.  The  Den- 
inasmuch  as  it  alludes  to  the  sharp  declivity  or  face  of  the  escarpment 
which  in  many  places  marks  the  edge  of  these  plains. "  "  Estaca  "  is  the 
Spanish  for  "  stake,"  and  "  estacado  "  is  a  participle,  meaning  "  staked," 
while  "  estacada  "  is  a  "  stockade,"  of  which  term  the  meaning  is  nearly 
the  same  as  "palisade"  ("palissade"  in  French).  This  last  term  is 
used  in  the  plural  in  the  United  States,  especially  ou  the  Hudson,  and 
also  in  Nevada,  as  a  topographical  designation,  with  the  meaning  of  a 
line  of  precipitous  cliffs;  but  the  present  writer  has  not  been  able  to 
obtain  any  evidence  that  the  Spanish  "  estacada  "  or  the  French  "  palis- 
sade "  has  ever  been  used  in  this  way.  "  Estocade  "  in  French  means  a 
thrust  with  the  point  of  a  sword,  and  there  is  no  use  of  this  word  in  the 
language  analogous  to  our  "  stockade,"  which  is  the  exact  equivalent  of 
the  Spanish  "estacada."  General  Marcy,  in  his  "Exploration  of  the 
Red  River,"  says  :  "  I  was  told  in  New  Mexico  that,  many  years  since,  the 
Mexicans  marked  out  a  route  with  stakes  across  this  plain,  where  they 
found  water;  and  hence  the  name  by  which  it  is  known  through- 
out Mexico  of  'El  Llano  Estacado,'  or  the  *  Staked  Plain.'"  General 
Marcy's  graphic  description  of  the  Llano  Estacado  may  here  with  pro- 
priety be  quoted.  He  says :  "  The  approximate  elevation  of  this  plain 
above  the  sea,  as  determined  with  the  barometer,  is  2,450  feet.  It  is 
much  elevated  above  the  surrounding  country,  very  smooth  and  level, 
and  spreads  out  in  every  direction  as  far  as  the  eye  can  penetrate,  with- 
out a  tree,  shrub,  or  any  other  herbage  to  intercept  the  vision.  The 
traveller,  in  passing  over  it,  sees  nothing  but  one  dreary  and  monotonous 
waste  of  barren  solitude.  It  is  an  ocean  of  desert  prairie,  where  the 
voice  of  man  is  seldom  heard,  and  where  no  living  being  permanently 
resides.  The  almost  total  absence  of  water  causes  all  animals  to  shun 
it :  even  the  Indians  do  not  venture  to  cross  it,  except  at  two  or  three 
points,  where  they  find  a  few  small  ponds  of  water." 


GEOLOGY  OF  THE  LLANO.  187 

ver,  Texas,  and  Fort  Worth  Railroad,  also  passes  over  a 
small  arm  of  this  great  plain,  crossing  the  Canadian 
River  at  Tascosa,  and  from  there  finding  its  way  in  a 
northwesterly  direction  to  an  intersection  with  the 
Atchison  system  at  Trinidad,  in  Colorado.  The  Llano 
Estacado  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Canadian 
River  and  on  the  west  by  the  Pecos,  both  of  which 
streams  run  in  valleys  sunk  nearly  a  thousand  feet 
below  the  level  of  its  surface.  Down  its  eastern  edge 
flow  in  deep  canons,  with  almost  vertical  walls,  various 
streams  which  are  the  head-waters  of  the  Red,  Brazos, 
and  Colorado  Rivers.  The  canons  at  the  head  of  the 
Red  River,  at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  Llano,  are 
said  by  Professor  Hill  "  to  be  excelled  in  beauty  by 
only  those  of  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado,  which 
they  much  resemble  in  color  and  stratigraphy."  Neither 
the  Canadian  nor  the  Pecos  receives  any  surface  drain- 
age from  the  Llano  Estacado. 

The  surface  of  the  Llano  is  said  by  Professor  Hill 
to  be  composed  of  unconsolidated  porous  sediments  — 
water-worn  sand,  pebbly  gravel,  and  the  like  —  which 
average  200  feet  in  thickness  throughout  its  whole 
extent,  but  which  are  thinnest  toward  the  east.  These 
sediments  are  thought  by  some  to  have  been  the  de- 
posit of  a  vast  lake  which  occupied  this  region  in  late 
Tertiary  times,  but  Professor  Hill  inclines  to  consider 
them  as  being  marginal  deposits  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
This  surface  formation  is  believed  once  to  have  covered 
the  whole  of  the  Edwards  Plateau,  from  which  it  has, 
however,  been  removed  by  erosion.1 

1  See  ante,  pp.  146,  147,  for  a  description  of  these  surface  deposits, 
which  are  there  shown  to  be  widely  spread  over  the  region  of  the  Plains. 


188  WATER-SUPPLY  OF  THE  LLANO. 

These  superficial  deposits  rest  on  a  quite  different 
series  of  rocks,  which  are  of  importance  with  refer- 
ence to  the'  question  of  water-supply.  The  rainfall 
in  the  Llano  Estacado  is  estimated  by  Professor  Hill 
at  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  inches,  and,  as  is  the 
case  over  a  large  part  of  the  semi-arid  region,  it 
almost  all  takes  place  during  the  summer  months.1  In 
spite  of  the  somewhat  large  precipitation  on  the  Llano 
there  is  no  surface  water  to  be  found  on  it,  unless  it  be 
in  the  form  of  small  pools  immediately  after  a  heavy 
shower.  The  porosity  of  the  surface  deposits  is  con- 
sidered by  Professor  Hill  as  the  principal  cause  of  the 
absence  of  water  on  the  surface  of  this  vast  plain; 
but,  in  point  of  fact,  the  rapid  evaporation  which  takes 
place  under  the  climatic  conditions  there  prevailing  is 
a  still  more  important  agent  in  producing  the  phenom- 
enon in  question.2 

According  to  the  statements  of  Professor  Hill  and 

1  The  statistics  of  rainfall  on  and  near  the  Llano  Estacado  are  by  no 
means  sufficient  to  justify  any  precise  statement  as  to  its  amount. 

2  See  ante,  pp.  105-108.     As  already  stated  in  the  present  volume,  the 
amount  of  rainfall  which  actually  percolates  the  surface  detritus  in  the 
semi-arid  and  arid  regions  of  the  United  States  seems  everywhere  to  be 
overstated  by  the  engineers  and  geologists  engaged   in  the   irrigation 
surveys :    this  is  the  conclusion  reached  by  the  present  writer  after  a 
study  of  the  results  of  experiments  made  in  other  countries,  such  data 
being  for  the  United  States  entirely  wanting.     The  following  statements 
in  reference  to  the  rainfall  on  the  Llano  Estacado  are  extracted  from 
Mr.  Roessler's   Report  (Ex.  Doc.  No.  222,  51st   Congress,  1st  Session, 
p.  291)  on  the  Artesian  Wells  of  Texas  :  "  The  rainfall  of  the  Staked 
Plain  varies  between  eighteen  and  thirty  inches,  falling  mainly  between 
the  21st  of  April  and  the  15th  of   September,  apparently  at  the  right 
time  to  perfectly. mature  crops.     But  this  is  not  the  case,  as  the  rain 
comes  in  tremendous  showers  at  comparatively  long  intervals  and  with- 
out regularity.     Some  locality  will  receive  fine  local  showers  at  short 
intervals,  while  some  other  point  not  thirty  miles  distant  will  alternately 
have  a  deluge  or  a  drought." 


ARTESIAN  WATEE  ON  THE   LLANO.  189 

Mr.  Roessler,  water  can  be  obtained  over  any  part  of  the 
Llano  Estacado  by  means  of  wells,  from  which  it  can 
be  pumped  with  the  aid  of  wind-mills,  and  this  has 
been  done  in  many  localities  and  pasturage  obtained 
for  thousands  of  cattle.  This  water,  as  Professor  Hill 
asserts,  "  is  stored  in  the  mortar  beds  and  grits  of  the 
Llano  Estacado,  and  is  the  most  remarkable  sheet  of 
water  in  our  land."  This  statement  is  said  to  be  true 
for  the  northern  and  northwestern  part  of  the  Llano, 
where  the  "  Llano  formation  "  rests  directly  on  the  im- 
pervious "Red  Beds,"  but  farther  south  and  southeast 
the  well  water  and  springs  come  from  the  Trinity 
sands,  which  are  intercalated  between  these  two  forma- 
tions. 

While  Artesian  water  has  not  yet  been  obtained  on 
the  Llano  Estacado,  Professor  Hill  is  not  without  hopes 
that  over  some  portions  of  its  surface  flowing  wells 
may  be  secured.  In  regard  to  this  point  he  remarks 
as  follows  :  "  Without  committing  myself  to  prophecy, 
it  is  my  opinion  that  when  the  portion  of  the  Llano 
along  the  Texas -New  Mexican  line  is  thoroughly 
prospected,  somewhere  in  that  region  will  be  found  an 
abundant  Artesian  supply  from  the  underlying  Dakota 
and  Trinity  sands  which  outcrop  so  abundantly  at  a 
higher  altitude  in  the  northwest  escarpment." 

The  published  statements  in  regard  to  the  quality  of 
the  water  obtained  from  the  wells  of  the  Llano  Esta- 
cado, or  from  those  of  the  adjacent  region,  are  extremely 
imperfect  and  unsatisfactory. 

Professor  Hill,  in  the  report  here  under  considera- 
tion, passes  next  to  a  description  of  the  water  condi- 
tions of  the  "  Trans-Pecos  or  Basin  regions."  That 


190  THE   GREAT  BASIN. 

part  of  Texas  and  New  Mexico  which  lies  west  of  the 
Pecos  River  is  topographically  and  climatologically  a 
portion  of  the  Basin  region  of  the  United  States, 
and  is  continued  to  the  south  in  the  Mexican  High 
Plateau  or  Table  Land.  The  "  Great  Basin/'  as  this 
term  is  generally  used,  comprises  an  area  of  about  a 
quarter  of  a  million  of  square  miles,  no  portion  of 
which  has  a  drainage  to  the  sea.  As  thus  limited,  the 
Basin  has  as  its  northern  boundary  the  watershed  of 
Snake  River ;  as  its  eastern,  that  of  Green  River ;  as 
its  southern,  that  of  the  Colorado ;  and  as  its  western, 
the  crest  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  From  no  part  of  this 
region  does  any  river  find  its  way  to  the  sea,  nor  is 
it  traversed  by  any  stream  while  doing  this,  even  if 
receiving  no  tributaries  from  the  region  through  which 
it  runs.  The  Great  Basin  is  an  elevated  plateau,  trav- 
ersed by  numerous  ranges  of  mountains,  which  have 
a  general  north  and  south  trend,  and  many  of  which 
are  considerably  elevated  above  the  intervening  val- 
leys, each  of  which  is,  as  a  general  rule,  by  itself  an 
independent  basin,  having  no  drainage  or  water  con- 
nection with  any  adjacent  valley.  The  chief  exceptions 
to  this  condition  of  things  are  the  basins  of  Great 
Salt  Lake  and  of  the  Humboldt  River,  of  which  the 
former  receives  the  drainage  of  quite  an  extensive  area, 
while  the  latter  terminates  in  a  lake  or  sink,  into  which 
flow,  after  a  succession  of  unusually  rainy  winters,  va- 
rious streams  originating  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada  and  generally  sinking  before  reaching 
Humboldt  Lake.1  The  bottoms  of  the.  valleys  between 

1  The  Humboldt  River  flows  near  the  extreme  northern  edge  of  the 
Great  Basin,  in  a  break  or  depression  extending  along  the  southern  edge 


THE   GREAT  BASIX.  191 

the  numerous  ranges  of  the  Great  Basin  are  usually 
themselves  sinks,  the  lower  portion  of  which  are  occu- 
pied by  bodies  of  water  which  vary  in  size  according 
as  the  preceding  winter  has  been  more  or  less  dry, 
and  of  which  many  are  hardly  anything  more  than 
saline  incrustations  resting  on  a  muddy  bottom.1 

Since  the  chief  cause  of  the  basin  character  of  the 
area  of  which  the  outlines  have  thus  been  indicated  is 
the  small  amount  of  the  rainfall,  it  is  evident  that 
the  adjacent  areas  which  are  similarly  conditioned  with 
regard  to  precipitation,  but  which  are  traversed  by 
rivers  heading  in  regions  receiving  a  comparatively 
large  rainfall,  must  partake  to  a  certain  extent  of  the 
characters  of  the  Great  Basin  itself.  Thus  the  country 
lying  north  of  the  Colorado,  below  the  junction  of  the 
Green  and  the  Grand,  furnishes  hardly  any  tributaries 
to  that  river,  so  that  the  southern  boundary  of  the 
Basin  must  be  drawn  close  to  its  right  bank.  The 
Colorado  River,  therefore,  derives  its  water  from  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  its  numerous  affluents  draining  an 
extensive  area  of  quite  large  precipitation  on  the  west- 
ern slope  of  that  system  of  ranges,  and  thus  collecting 
water  sufficient  to  enable  the  main  river,  after  their 
junction,  to  maintain  itself  as  a  powerful  stream,  al- 

of  the  great  northern  volcanic  plateau.  It  intersects  the  valleys  of  the 
Basin  Ranges  at  right  angles  to  their  trend,  and  as  the  whole  region  rises 
in  altitude  toward  the  south,  the  Humboldt  Valley  is  the  natural  recipient 
of  the  drainage  of  a  very  extensive  area,  the  climatic  conditions  of  which, 
however,  are  such  as  to  cause  the  volume  of  this  drainage  to  be  very  small, 
and  extremely  variable  in  amount.  Carson  Lake,  the  sink  of  the  Carson 
River,  is  sometimes  so  united  with  the  sink  of  the  Humboldt  that  the 
two  become  in  fact  one  continuous  sheet  of  water. 

i  See  "The  United  States,"  etc.,  pp.  82-89,  in  which  the  physical 
geography  and  geology  of  the  Great  Basin  are  briefly  described. 


192  OROGRAPHY  OF  THE   GREAT  BASIN. 

though  receiving  no  tributary  of  importance  in  a 
course  of  more  than  a  thousand  miles. 

In  the  Great  Basin  proper,  the  ranges  of  mountains 
are  so  high  and  the  valleys  between  them  so  narrow 
that  the  latter  are  the  less  conspicuous  topographical 
features  of  the  region;  but  as  we  leave  this  area  which 
is  strictly  destitute  of  any  drainage  to  the  sea,  and 
especially  in  advancing  in  a  southerly  and  southwest- 
erly direction,  we  come  to  a  part  of  the  country  where 
the  valleys  broaden  out  and  become  relatively  more 
important  than  the  mountain  ranges,  these  diminish- 
ing considerably  in  breadth  and  elevation,  as  well  as 
in  regularity  of  development.  This  is  especially  the 
Case  with  the  region  which  lies  south  and  west  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  which  extend 
through  Colorado  with  such  a  breadth  and  with  so 
much  regularity  of  trend,  but  which  is  with  difficulty 
traceable  beyond  Santa  Fe,  so  that  some  have  con- 
sidered the  eastern  division  of  the  Cordilleras  as  ter- 
minating at  that  point,  the  real  condition  of  things 
being  that  this  great  system  of  ranges  continues  indef- 
initely to  the  southward  into  Mexico,  while  the  indi- 
vidual masses  of  which  it  is  made  up  become  more  and 
more  broken  and  irregular,  so  that  their  connection  is 
much  less  easily  traced,  especially  as  this  want  of  con- 
tinuity or  absence  of  a  dominating  range  is  accom- 
panied by  a  falling  off  in  height,  isolated  volcanic 
masses  more  or  less  conical  in  outline  beginning  to 
form  the  highest  summits.1 

In  New  Mexico  and  Western  Texas,  as  well  as  in 

1  The  name  "  Rocky  Mountains  "  is  not  in  general  use  for  any  part  of 
the  Cordilleran  system  farther  south  than  Santa  Fe. 


MESAS  AND  BASIN  PLAINS.  193 

Southern  Arizona,  there  is  an  immense  development  of 
this  type  of  topography :  the  valleys  become  u  mesas  " 
or  "  basin-plains/'  and  occupy  extensive  areas  behind 
which  the  mountains  seem  almost  to  lose  themselves. 
These  wider  and  more  table-like  plains,  however,  differ 
but  little  from  the  valleys  of  the  Great  Basin  itself, 
so  far  as  climate  is  concerned ;  if  there  is  any  differ- 
ence, it  is  that  the  former  are  still  drier  and  hotter 
than  the  latter.  The  narrower  the  valley  and  the 
higher  the  mountains,  the  greater  the  chances  of  ob- 
taining water  from  melting  snow  or  from  underground 
sources  fed  by  precipitation,  which  is  naturally  greatest 
where  the  ranges  are  broadest  and  most  elevated. 

The  region  which  lies  south  and  southwest  of  El 
Paso,  and  which  belongs  to  Northwestern  Texas,  South- 
ern New  Mexico,  and  Southern  Arizona,  is  precisely 
that  part  of  the  United  States  of  which  the  topog- 
raphy has  been  least  studied,  and  where  the  names 
of  the  various  mountain  ranges  are  most  uncertain. 
Professor  Hill  gives  various  details  in  regard  to  the 
geological  structure  of  what  he  considers  one  of  "  the 
most  extensive  and  characteristic  of  these  great  inner 
mountain  basins/'  namely,  the  "  Organ-Hueco  Basin," 
as  he  calls  it,  and  which  lies  between  the  Organ- 
Franklin  and  Hueco-Sacramento  ranges,  in  extreme 
Western  Texas  and  Southern  New  Mexico.  This,  he 
says,  is  a  "  vast  expanse  of  dead  level  plain,  extending 
from  the  Rio  Grande,  between  El  Paso  and  Fort  Han- 
cock, northward  some  150  miles."  It  is  ninety  miles 
in  width  at  its  sputhern  end,  and  narrows  to  less  than 
forty  at  its  northern,  having  a  slope  to  the  south  suffi- 
cient to  make  a  difference  of  1,000  feet  in  the  altitudes 

13 


194  THE   ORGAN-HUECO   BASIN. 

of  its  southern  and  northern  ends.  The  soil  of  this 
"  mesa,"  which  is  entirely  unfurrowed  by  any  drainage 
channel  other  than  that  of  the  Rio  Grande  itself,  is  a 
sandy  loam,  "  resembling  that  of  the  Llano  Estacado, 
and  is  the  residuum  of  the  substructure  of  stratified, 
alternating,  or  unconsolidated  sands  (grits),  clays,  and 
water-worn  gravel,  often  cemented  by  the  white  chalky- 
looking  material  known  in  the  region  as  tierra  blanca, 
or  white  earth."  These  beds,  like  those  of  the  Llano 
Estacado,  are  said  to  be  "  chiefly  marked  by  excessive 
lack  of  consolidation,  the  sands,  clays,  and  gravels  be- 
ing almost  as  loose  as  when  first  deposited."  As  in 
all  the  other  valleys  and  basins  of  the  region,  this  area 
is  surrounded  by  numerous  terraces  —  proofs  of  the 
former  existence  of  a  lake  of  large  dimensions,  but 
which  has  now  become  entirely  dried  up.  The  streams 
which  flow  down  the  slopes  of  the  mountains  by  which 
this  basin  is  irregularly  surrounded  all  sink  the  moment 
they  reach  the  porous  materials  which  cover  its  floor ; 
for,  as  Professor  Hill  observes,  "  they  do  not  evaporate, 
as  has  been  alleged,  nor  do  they  sink  into  caverns,  as 
most  people  think,  but  they  are  imbibed,  literally  drunk 
up,  by  the  soft  sponge-like  formation  of  the  plain,  and 
are  stored  below  the  line  of  saturation.  The  shedding 
of  its  rain  waters  by  the  impervious  mountain  rock 
and  its  imbibition  by  the  spongy  plains,  is  the  key 
to  the  whole  water  question  in  the  arid  region." 

West  of  the  Organ-Franklin  range  is  another  ex- 
tensive basin,  called  the  Mesilla,  through  which  runs 
the  Rio  Grande,  on  which  are  the  towns  of  Mesilla 
and  Las  Cruces,  "two  of  the  most  flourishing  places 
in  New  Mexico,"  agriculture  being  carried  on  by  irriga- 


WATER  ON  THE  MESAS.  195 

tion  from  the  river.  The  lake  which  once  occupied  the 
Mesilla  was  continuous  with  that  of  the  Hueco-Frank- 
lin  basin.  The  Jornada  del  Muerto  is  another  of  these 
mesas,  extending  parallel  with  the  Rio  Grande,  but 
separated  from  it  by  a  series  of  low  ranges,  and 
bounded  on  the  east  by  the  northern  continuation  of 
the  Sierra  de  los  Organos  or  Organ  Range. 

All  these  and  many  other  similar  basins  appear  to 
have  nearly  the  same  geological  and  climatic  char- 
acteristics, and  all,  in  the  opinion  of  Professor  Hill,  are 
supplied  with  a  great  amount  of  underground  water. 
The  evidence  on  which  this  statement  is  based  seems 
to  be  of  a  very  unsatisfactory  character.  Thus  it  is 
stated  that  "Wherever  upon  this  apparently  sterile 
plain  [the  Franklin-Hueco  basin]  an  experiment  has 
been  made,  abundant  water  has  been  secured  at  depths 
below  232  feet,  and  windmills  pump  it  for  irrigation." 
Records  of  seven  wells  on  the  Lanoria  Mesa,1  fur- 
nished by  B.  D.  Russell  of  El  Paso,  give  the  depth  at 
which  water  has  been  obtained  at  that  locality  as 
varying  from  210  to  621  feet,  nothing  being  said  as  to 
its  quantity  or  quality,  but  to  this  record  is  appended 
the  statement  by  Professor  Hill  that  "  the  success  of 
these  wells,  together  with  their  inexhaustible  supply 
of  water,  demonstrates  the  fact  that  the  capacity  of 
the  Franklin-Hueco  basin  formation  for  water  is  very 
great,  notwithstanding  the  slight  rainfall  and  excessive 
evaporation  which  has  driven  the  line  of  visible  moist- 

i  The  position  of  the  "Lanoria  Mesa"  is  not  given  by  Professor 
Hill,  but  as  he  uses  the  records  furnished  by  Mr.  Russell  to  justify 
the  statement  that  there  is  a  great  amount  of  underground  water  in  the 
Franklin-Hueco  basin,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  it  forms  a  part  of  that 
mesa. 


196  WELLS  AT  PECOS  CITY. 

ure  nearly  150  feet  below  the  surface."  To  this  is 
added  the  remark,  that,  "relatively  speaking,  this 
basin  is  one  of  the  great  water-bearing  areas  of  the 
West,  where,  if  irrigation  can  be  properly  conducted  by 
pumping,  an  agricultural  community  will  eventually 
thrive.  Already  several  large  fruit  farms  are  being 
irrigated  in  this  basin,  and  if  they  prove  profitable 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  but  that  much  of  this 
country,  apparently  a  hopeless  desert,  will  be  made  into 
a  fertile  region." 

The  Mesilla  Basin,  the  Jornada  del  Muerto,  part  of 
the  Pecos  Valley,  and  various  other  "  basins "  of  this 
region,  are  all  considered  by  Professor  Hill  as  being 
essentially  alike  in  their  water  conditions,  although  but 
little  definite  information  in  regard  to  this  matter  is 
reported.  Of  the  flowing  wells  at  Pecos  City,  on  the 
authority  of  Mr.  Roessler,  it  is  stated  that  their  depth 
varies  from  185  to  315  feet,  that  their  flow  is  from 
"  very  light "  to  sixty  gallons  per  minute,  and  that  the 
water  in  all  of  these  wells  is  slightly  brackish,  "  some 
being  better  than  others."  On  the  same  authority  it 
is  said  of  two  wells  at  Toyah,  514  and  834  feet  deep, 
that  the  shallower  one  yielded  nine  gallons  per  minute, 
and  the  deeper  310,  the  water  from  both  being  "  white 
sulphur  with  a  salty  taste."  It  is  added  that  "the 
wells  of  this  subdistrict  are  as  a  rule  very  deep  and 
the  water  in  many  of  them  is  practically  unfit  for 
use."  1  In  regard  to  Deming,  the  point  of  junction  of 
the  Atchison,  the  Southern  Pacific,  and  the  Silver  City 
and  Pacific  Railroads,  and  near  the  eastern  border  of 

i  For  information  from  another  source  in  regard  to  the  water  condi- 
tions in  the  Pecos  Valley,  see  ante,  pp.  136-138. 


THE  JORNADA  DEL  MUERTO.  197 

Mimbres  Basin,  it  is  said  that  water  can  be  obtained 
in  inexhaustible  quantity  at  about  fifty  feet  in  depth, 
the  whole  plain  being  covered  with  cattle  ranches  and 
windmills.1 

In  summing  up  in  regard  to  the  water  conditions  of 
these  basins  in  general,  Professor  Hill  remarks  as  fol- 
lows :  "These  vast  inter-mountain  plains,  or  basins, 
or  ancient  lake  valleys,  have,  until  lately,  been  abso- 
lutely void  of  surface  water,  and  so  synonymous  with 
sterility  that  they  have  been  considered  often  the  syn- 
onym of  death,  like  Death's  Valley  in  California,  or 
the  Jornado  del  Muerto  of  New  Mexico.2  That  they 
should  now  be  found  to  be  underlain  by  an  abundance 
of  fresh  water  is  a  fact  which  is  of  the  greatest  value 
in  the  economic  conditions  of  the  arid  region,  where 
water  is  worth  more  than  land,  and  where  a  drop  to 
even  quench  the  traveller's  thirst  is  usually  unobtain- 
able, except  in  rare  localities.  The  far  greater  extent 
of  these  basins  than  the  mountains  over  New  Mexico, 
Texas,  and  Mexico,  seems  to  have  been  overlooked  or 
considered  unimportant  by  national  surveys  as  well  as 
its  underground  water  conditions." 

1  This  statement  is  made  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Warren  Bristol. 
See  "  Report  of  Special  Committee,"  etc.,  Senate  Document,  Report  928, 
Part  4,  51st  Congress,  1st  Session,  pp.  64,  65.    Mr.  Bristol  declares  « that 
as  soon  as  forestry  is  systematically  cultivated  here  [in  the  Mimbres 
Basin],  and  trees  are  planted  so  as  to  break  the  prevailing  winds,  it  will 
be  a  wonderful  country  with  water  for  productiveness." 

2  "  Death  Valley "  was  so  named  because  a  party  of  immigrants  on 
their  way  to  California,  in  1849,  perished  there  from  want  of  water. 
"  Jornada  [not  Jornado]  del  Muerto  "  (day's  journey  of  the  dead  man) 
is  a  term  not  unfrequently  given  by  the  early  Spanish  settlers  in  the 
Cordilleran  region,  and  having  reference  to  the  fact  that  a  long  day's 
march  must  be  made  without  water,  and  of  course  not  without  diffi- 
culty and  danger. 


198  GEOLOGY  OF  NEBRASKA. 

That  similar  sanguine  expectations  in  regard  to  the 
future  of  the  basin  region  of  the  Cordilleras  are  held 
by  others,  as  well  as  by  Professor  Hill,  will  become 
evident  on  reading  a  statement  made  by  a  citizen  of 
the  driest  part  of  the  State  of  Nevada,  who  not  only 
asserts  that  the  water-supply  of  that  region  is  "im- 
mense," but  that  the  climate  is  undergoing  a  rapid 
change  for  the  better :  "  In  relation  to  the  water  sup- 
ply beneath  the  surface,  I  believe  it  to  be  simply  im- 
mense. Flowing  wrells  can  be  found  by  boring  a 
short  distance  in  many  of  our  valleys.  .  .  .  Nature  is 
evidently  preparing  this  section  of  country  for  great 
things  in  the  near  future.  .  .  .  Our  great  alkali  flats, 
or  dry  lakes,  are  also  being  filled  up  to  a  level  with  the 
surrounding  plains,  and  many  of  them  are  also  being 
gradually  covered  with  vegetation.  .  .  .  Cloud  bursts 
and  high  winds  are  becoming  less  frequent,  and  many 
other  things  are  looking  favorable  for  a  brighter 
future."1 

The  report  of  Professor  Hicks,  of  which  the  title 
has  been  given  on  a  preceding  page,2  begins  with  some 
general  remarks  on  the  geological  structure  of  the 
State  of  Nebraska,  and  the  relations  of  this  structure 
to  the  problem  of  water-supply,  as  introductory  to  a 
somewhat  detailed  account  of  the  results  of  a  survey 
of  the  Loup  Valley.  Certain  points  in  this  report, 
which  are  worthy  of  notice  as  throwing  light  on  some 
of  the  questions  already  raised  in  the  present  volume 
having  reference  to  the  climatic  and  irrigational  con- 

1  From  an  article  headed  "  Phreatic  Waters  in  Nye  County,  Nevada, 
by  George  Nichols,  Agent  of  the  Nevada  State  Board  of  Trade,"  in 
Hinton's  Report  on  Irrigation,  Part  I.,  1891,  pp.  210,  211. 

2  See  ante,  p.  145. 


TERTIARY  AND  CRETACEOUS.  199 

ditions  of  this  part  of  the  country,  may  next  be  taken 
up  for  examination.1 

Two  formations  are  said  by  Professor  Hicks  to 
"  dominate  the  circulation  of  moisture,  both  on  the 
surface  and  beneath  it ;  these  are  the  Cretaceous  and 
the  Tertiary,  which  lie  in  the  form  of  a  synclinal 
basin,  the  western  rim  of  which  is  3,000  feet  higher 
than  the  eastern."  These  formations  rest  on  rocks  of 
Permo-Carboniferous  age,  but  practically,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  question  of  water-supply,  this  formation 
is  of  no  importance,  since  the  upper  member  of  the 
Cretaceous  is  a  shale  "  almost  perfectly  impervious  or 
water  tight."  Above  this  shale  is  a  series  of  porous 
Tertiary  rocks  —  "  grits,  conglomerates,  gravels,  sands, 
vesicular  limestones,  and  marls"  — which  fill  this  syn- 
clinal basin,  forming  the  surface  of  the  country,  and 
having  a  general  slope  to  the  east  of  about  ten  feet 
to  the  mile.  The  formation  designated  by  Professor 
Hicks  as  "  Tertiary  "  in  reality  includes  the  Post-Ter- 
tiary or  Quaternary  deposits,  or  that  which  might 
properly  be  designated  as  "  superficial  detritus,"  since, 
as  already  remarked,  the  Tertiary  and  Quaternary  can- 
not in  this  region  be  distinctly  separated  from  each 
other.2  Since  the  rainfall  of  a  large  part  of  Nebraska 
is  considerable  in  amount,  that  of  the  eastern  half  of 
the  State  being  between  twenty  and  thirty  inches,3  it 

1  See  ante,  pp.  117-122  and  138-141. 

2  See  ante,  p.  119. 

8  On  a  map  showing  the  "  normal  annual  precipitation  "  in  Nebraska, 
which  is  contained  in  a  government  publication  bearing  the  date  of  1890, 
(Executive  Document  No.  115,  51st  Congress,  1st  Session,)  and  entitled 
"  Climate  of  Nebraska,  particularly  in  Reference  to  the  Temperature  and 
Rainfall,"  the  isohyetal  of  twenty  inches  runs  from  near  the  intersection 
of  the  101st  meridian  with  the  south  boundary  of  the  State,  in  a  nearly 


200  RIVERS  OF  NEBRASKA. 

is  evident  that  under  the  geological  conditions  here 
existing,  the  Tertiary  and  superficial  deposits  being  as 
a  rule  all  porous,  springs  should  be  common  at  the 
junction  of  the  overlying  permeable  with  the  under- 
lying impermeable  formation.  These  springs  add  to 
the  volume  of  the  rivers,  "  which  sometimes  become 
larger  as  followed  downward,  independently  of  the  in- 
flux of  tributaries."  This  is  a  matter  of  common 
occurrence  in  all  well  watered  regions,  and  the  greater 
the  thickness  of  the  superficial  unconsolidated  (and 
hence  permeable)  deposits,  the  more  regular  will  be  the 
flow  of  the  streams  and  the  less  rapidly  will  they  be 
affected  by  sudden  changes  in  the  amount  of  the  pre- 
cipitation. But,  as  Professor  Hicks  remarks,  "  in  other 
parts  of  the  Great  Plains,  however,  not  infrequently  the 
result  is  precisely  opposite ;  that  is,  the  volume  of  the 
stream  will  be  less  at  the  lower  point."  This  also  is 
in  regions  of  small  rainfall  a  matter  of  common  oc- 
currence, many  streams  disappearing  altogether  during 
a  part  of  the  year  —  or  sometimes  even  for  several 
hours  of  the  day  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  —  and 
for  considerable  distances. 

Professor  Hicks  considers  that  the  rivers  of  Nebraska 
are  now  flowing  in  valleys  "  which  were  cut  by  older 
rivers,  generally  with  a  depth  and  breadth  far  greater 
than  the  present  valley."  These  old  valleys,  he  goes 
on  to  remark,  "were  silted  up  during  the  Pliocene 
submergence,  which  was  the  latest  phase  of  the  Ter- 

northerly  direction,  but  bending  slightly  to  the  eastward  so  as  to  cut 
the  north  boundary  at  its  intersection  with  the  99th  meridian.  A  part 
of  the  southeastern  corner  of  Nebraska  is  comprised  between  the  isohy- 
etals  of  twenty-eight  and  thirty-four  inches,  and  a  small  portion  of  its 
southwestern  corner  has  less  than  sixteen  inches  of  rainfall. 


RIVERS  AND  VALLEYS  OF  NEBRASKA.  201 

tiary  age."  This  submergence  he  considers  as  having 
been  the  result  of  the  formation  of  a  "great  inland 
lake,"  the  disappearance  of  which  was  a  very  recent 
event  —  "so  recent  that  the  present  rivers  have  nob 
had  time  to  restore  their  valleys  to  the  former  depth 
by  washing  out  the  sands,  clays,  and  gravels  deposited 
there."  This  accumulation  of  silt,  or  detrital  material, 
will,  he  thinks,  if  sufficient  time  be  given,  be  mastered 
by  the  rivers,  which  "  will  push  or  roll  it  along  the 
bottom  to  a  new  resting  place  nearer  the  sea  "  ;  for,  as 
he  adds,  "  it  requires  a  very  strong  volume  of  water 
to  maintain  a  perennial  current  in  such  a  silt-gorged 
valley.  Even  the  regal  strength  of  the  North  Platte  is 
insufficient  for  these  arduous  conditions.  Coming  out 
of  the  mountains  with  a  flow  of  over  10,000  cubic  feet 
per  second,  it  is  often  swallowed  up  in  its  own  sands 
between  North  Platte  and  Columbus.  The  same  thing 
happens  to  the  Republican  River  in  certain  parts  of 
its  course.  Many  of  the  small  streams  entirely  dis- 
appear after  a  course  of  a  few  miles,  never  reap- 
pearing." 

The  theories  held  by  Professor  Hicks  in  regard  -to 
the  nature  and  epoch  of  the  formation  of  the  older 
deep  and  broad  valleys  in  which  the  present  diminished 
streams  are  running,  and  of  the  ability  of  these 
streams  to  carve  out  new  valleys  similar  to  those  of  a 
former  age,  if  sufficient  time  be  allowed,  have  no  scien- 
tific basis  on  which  to  rest.  The  present  streams  do 
flow  in  valleys  quite  out  of  proportion,  as  regards 
dimensions,  with  the  streams  themselves.  In  other 
words,  the  volume  of  the  rivers  has  diminished,  while 
there  is  no  proof  that  this  change  has  been  compen- 


202  DIMINUTION   OF   THE  RIVERS. 

sated,  to  any  perceptible  degree,  by  a  change  of  grade 
in   the   region   which   they   traverse.      But    this    has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  disappearance  of  any  "great 
inland  lake"  formerly  existing  there  as  a  feature  of 
the  Pliocene  epoch.     The  diminution,  or  even  entire 
disappearance,  of  many  lakes,  both  large  and  small, 
and  the  general  decrease  in  the  volume  of  the  rivers, 
are  phenomena  not  limited  to  any  special  region   or 
to  any  geological  period,  except  that  it   may  be  said 
with  truth,  that  if  such  events  had  been  taking  place 
during  any  period  of  indefinite  length,  and  had  also 
been  continued  during  the  present  epoch,  their  effects 
would  be  more  and  more  distinctly  perceived  in  pro- 
portion as  a  nearer  approach  was  made  to  our  own 
times.     Observations  extended  over  a  large  part  of  the 
earth's  surface  demonstrate,  beyond  all  possibility  of 
doubt,  that  this  phenomenon  of  the  diminution  of  lakes 
and  rivers  is  not  peculiar  to  Nebraska,  nor  to  the  Cor- 
dilleran  region  in  general,  but  that  it  has  manifested 
itself  all  over  the  world,  and  that  it  had  its  beginning, 
not   in   Pliocene  times,  but  earlier   than   that  —  how 
much  earlier  it  is  impossible  to  say  —  and  that  it  is 
something  which  is  still  going  on,  or,  in  other  words, 
that  it  belongs  to  the  present  or  historic  epoch  as  well 
as  to  the  past,  or  to  times  of  which  there  is  no  other 
record  than  the  geological.1     It  is  the  small  precipita- 
tion in  the  region  drained  by  the  rivers  of  Nebraska, 
the  very  slight  grade  of  the  surface  over  which  these 
rivers  run,  and,  finally,  the  fact  that  there  has  been, 
in  later  geological  times,  a  general  diminution  in  the 

1  See  the  present  writer's   "Climatic   Changes   of   Later   Geological 
Times,"  Chapter  II. ;  also  ante,  pp.  133,  134. 


THE   UNDERFLOW.  203 

amount  of  the  rainfall  in  this  as  well  as  in  other 
regions,  which  are  the  real  causes  of  the  condition  of 
things  which  Professor  Hicks  describes :  this  will  re- 
main unaltered  unless  some  orographic  disturbance 
should  take  place  by  which  the  grade  of  the  surface 
should  be  disturbed,  or  unless  there  be  some  change  in 
the  climatic  conditions,  accompanied  by  an  increase  or 
diminution  in  the  amount  of  the  rainfall,  of  which 
last  two  suggested  events  the  latter  is,  so  far  as 
present  evidence  goes,  the  one  most  likely  to  happen, 
although  any  such  climatic  change  cannot  be  expected 
to  be  rapid,  or  easily  detected  by  instrumental  obser- 
vations. 

Professor  Hicks  next  proceeds  to  consider  the  subject 
of  the  "  underflow,"  in  regard  to  which  so  much  has 
been  said  by  other  officials  of  the  Irrigation  Surveys, 
and  which  has  already  more  than  once  been  the  sub- 
ject of  comment  in  the  present  work.  The  following 
quotation  will  illustrate  the  opinion  held  by  the  author 
of  the  report  here  under  consideration  with  regard  to 
the  nature  of  the  underflow  :  "  The  streams  thus  be- 
coming entangled  in  the  silt  of  their  own  valleys  are 
indeed  lost  to  view,  but  they  are  not  really  lost,  they  go 
to  feed  the  underflow.  No  physical  feature  of  the  Great 
Plains  is  more  impressive,  when  once  fully  realized, 
than  the  fact  that  a  mighty  invisible  river  accompanies 
each  visible  one.  The  underflow  is  vastly  broader  and 
deeper  than  the  visible  river,  and  it  is  always  there, 
while  the  river  in  sight  may  cease  to  flow.  The  only 
point  in  which  the  river  excels  is  velocity."  In  regard 
to  the  question  what  this  velocity  is,  no  definite  ev- 
idence is  offered,  but  it  is  stated  that,  in  some  places 


204  SHEET  WATERS  AND  UNDERFLOW. 

in  the  valley  of  the  Platte,  the  underflow  is  so  copious 
that  when  tapped  at  the  distance  of  several  miles  from 
the  channel  "  it  responds  to  powerful  pumps  almost  as 
freely  as  if  the  supply  were  drawn  from  a  subterranean 
lake."  The  exact  locality  where  this  response  takes 
place  is,  however,  not  specified,  nor  has  the  present 
writer  been  able  to  find  in  the  statistics  of  the  wells  of 
this  region  any  facts  substantiating  this  statement.1 

From  the  consideration  of  the  "  underflow/'  Professor 
Hicks  proceeds  to  that  of  the  "  sheet  waters,"  and  it 
is  evident  that  he  makes  no  real  distinction  between 
the  two ;  it  is  only  when  the  "  sheet  waters  "  are  con- 
sidered from  a  theoretical  point  of  view  as  flowing,  that 
they  become  the  "underflow." 

The  facts  in  regard  to  the  region  under  discussion  in 
Professor  Hicks's  report  are  simply  as  follows.  The 
underlying  rocks,  which  are  of  Cretaceous  age,  are 
impervious  to  water ;  over  these  is  a  covering  of  Ter- 
tiary and  Quaternary,  it  being  impossible  to  make  any 
distinct  line  of  separation  between  these  two  forma- 
tions, and  this  superficial  detrital  material  varies  in 
thickness  from  being  a  "  mere  skin  cover  "  to  a  thou- 
sand feet ;  moreover,  it  is  as  variable  in  its  lithological 
character  as  it  is  in  thickness,  since  its  "  texture  runs 
from  clays  and  tolerably  compact  marls  to  coarse 
gravels  and  conglomerates";  but,  on  the  whole,  the 
gravelly  element  seems  to  predominate,  since  the  entire 
formation  is  described  as  being  "a  great  mass  of  po- 
rous materials,  forming  the  surface  and  filling  the  old 

1  See  ante,  p.  119,  where  it  is  stated  in  regard  to  the  wells  of  Nebraska 
and  the  adjacent  States  that  those  yielding  a  considerable  volume  of 
water  are  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  a  river. 


THE  LOUP  VALLEY.  205 

valleys/'  and  this  it  is  in  which  "  the  waters  are  ab- 
sorbed, hidden,  drawn  away  from  the  surface  out  of 
sight,  but  not  lost/"  These  porous  rocks  "  absorb  and 
occlude  "  the  rainfall,  the  deficiency  of  which  is  not  so 
much  the  cause  of  the  absence  of  surface  drainage  as 
are  the  peculiar  geological  conditions  here  existing,  the 
consequence  of  which  is  that  "  a  porous  and  uneven 
surface  drinks  up  the  waters  that  fall  from  the  heav- 
ens " ;  but  this  is  compensated  by  the  fact  that  "  the 
underflow  and  sheet  waters  are  copious." 

It  is  not  necessary  that  any  more  space  should  here 
be  given  to  the  examination  of  the  underflow  question, 
since  no  new  evidence  of  importance  bearing  on  this 
subject  is  brought  forward  by  Professor  Hicks,  who 
himself  admits  that  the  data  are  meagre.  He  does, 
however,  draw  some  conclusions  from  a  comparison  of 
the  time  of  the  annual  rise  of  the  Loup  Rivers,  which 
he  says  is  "  slight  but  quite  perceptible,"  and  which 
generally  takes  place  in  September,  with  the  seasonal 
distribution  of  the  rainfall  in  the  region  drained  by 
that  stream.1 

In  the  Loup  Valley  the  annual  precipitation  is  said 
to  average  23.74  inches,  but  its  seasonal  distribution  is 
very  irregular.  During  the  half-year  beginning  with 
October  and  ending  with  March  the  rainfall  is  less 

1  The  Loup  River  system  consists  essentially  of  three  streams  of  about 
the  same  length,  which  flow  in  channels  which  are  nearly  parallel  with 
one  another,  and  are  from  ten  to  twenty-five  miles  apart,  having  a 
length  of  from  a  hundred  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  These  streams, 
which  are  tributaries  of  the  Platte,  are  known  as  the  North,  Middle, 
and  South  Loup  Rivers,  and  they  unite  about  fifty  miles  above  their 
junction  with  the  main  river.  Hence  this  system  of  parallel  streams 
is  sometimes  designated  as  the  "  Loup  River,"  but  more  frequently  as 
the  "  Loup  Rivers." 


206  MOVEMENT  OF   THE  UNDERFLOW, 

than  a  quarter  of  that  of  the  whole  year,  the  maxi- 
mum being  in  June,  July,  and  August,  from  the  middle 
of  which  last  named  month  the  diminution  is  rapid 
and  pretty  regular  to  the  time  of  the  minimum  in 
November.  From  these  data  Professor  Hicks  draws 
the  inference  that  the  rate  of  movement  of  the  under- 
flow is  about  one  third  of  a  mile  per  day.  This  result 
he  obtains  by  estimating  the  distance  through  which 
the  "  subterranean  waters  "  flow  to  be  twenty  miles,  and 
the  time  occupied  by  this  movement  to  be  two  months 
"  from  July  to  September."  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
point  out  how  very  unsatisfactory  estimates  based  on 
such  data  must  be.  The  maximum  rainfall  occurring 
in  midsummer  after  a  long  period  of  almost  drought, 
during  which,  as  we  are  told,  the  rivers  of  the  re- 
gion in  most  years  disappear  entirely  for  months,  the 
line  of  saturation  must  necessarily  have  descended  very 
low  in  consequence  of  evaporation  from  the  surface 
and  draining  of  the  porous  rock  to  supply  the  springs 
which  continue  to  flow  for  a  considerable  part  of  the 
year.  After  the  rainfall  increases  to  such  an  amount, 
and  becomes  so  continuous,  that  percolation  begins  to 
exceed  evaporation,  the  rocks  which  have  become 
drained  of  their  moisture  must  be  again  filled  before 
the  rivers  can  receive  any  farther  supply  of  water  than 
that  which  runs  off  the  surface  in  the  immediate  vicin- 
ity of  their  channels.  That  there  should  be  an  interval 
of  a  few  weeks  between  the  period  of  maximum  rain- 
fall and  that  of  the  annual  rise  of  the  rivers  is  what 
would  naturally  be  expected.  That  this  rise  should  be 
gradual  and  unattended  with  disastrous  freshets  is  the 
natural  result  of  the  combination  of  maximum  rainfall 


IRRIGATION  OF   THE  PLATTE  VALLEY.  207 

occurring  after  a  long  period  of  what  may  almost  be 
called  drought,  and  a  soil  consisting  of  a  very  porous 
material  developed  to  a  very  great  thickness. 

The  seasonal  distribution  of  the  rainfall  of  Nebraska 
is  admitted  to  be  highly  favorable  to  agriculture  —  to 
that  carried  on  by  the  aid  of  irrigation  as  well  as  to 
that  unassisted  by  it.  It  is  acknowledged,  however,  by 
Professor  Hicks,  that  practically  the  only  irrigable  lands 
of  Nebraska  are  those  lying  in  the  valleys,  and  being 
thus  adjacent  to  the  rivers  and  nearly  on  the  same 
level  with  them  —  in  short,  the  river  bottoms.  Only 
very  exceptionally  can  the  higher  lands  between  the 
river  bottoms  be  irrigated,  and  that,  so  far  as  known, 
only  by  pumping  from  wells.  Indeed  it  is  quite  doubt- 
ful whether  the  water  of  the  rivers  brought  on  to  the 
valley  lands  by  means  of  gravity  ditches,  will  suffice 
to  irrigate  the  whole  area  thus  situated.  An  estimate 
is  given  of  the  number  of  acres  occupied  by  the  bot- 
toms' of  the  Platte,  which  are  said  to  form  the  largest 
body  of  irrigable  land  in  Nebraska.  The  length  of  the 
valley  is  taken  at  441  miles,  and  the  average  breadth, 
not  including  the  channel  of  the  river,  at  five  and  a 
half  miles,  giving  an  acreage  of  one  and  a  half  mil- 
lions. This,  however,  it  is  said,  is  "  much  beyond  the 
capacity  of  the  Platte  to  irrigate  unless  we  count  upon 
a  very  high  duty  of  water."  It  is  admitted  that  some 
of  the  valley  lands  are  the  poorest  in  the  country, 
being  both  sandy  and  alkaline,  "  because  the  rivers  sel- 
dom overflow  their  banks."  It  is  thought,  however, 
that  a  remedy  may  be  found  for  this  in  "  artificial 
flooding "  —  in  other  words,  by  diking  the  fields  and 
keeping  them  covered  by  water  during  the  non-growing 


208  THE  PLATTE  VALLEY. 

season,  by  which  means  the  alkali  will  be  dissolved  out 
and  the  sands  covered  with  fertilizing  mud  for  the  next 
crop.  How,  and  at  what  expense,  this  might  be  ef- 
fected, is  not  explained.  It  is  admitted,  however,  that 
the  Platte  "  actually  goes  dry  some  two  months  almost 
every  year  at  the  very  point  where  I  [Professor  Hicks] 
found  it  sweeping  along  like  a  moving  sea.  Hence  it 
would  appear  that  the  changes  in  the  volume  of  the 
Platte  Kiver,  from  season  to  season,  are  much  more 
considerable  than  those  of  the  Loup  —  one  of  its  prin- 
cipal tributaries  —  for  of  this  the  annual  rise  is  said,  as 
has  been  stated  above,  to  be  but  small  in  amount."1 

A  considerable  part  of  Professor  Hicks's  report  is 
devoted  to  a  detailed  description  of  the  Loup  Valley,  of 
which  a  more  careful  survey  was  made  than  of  the 
Platte  and  of  the  other  large  rivers  of  Nebraska.  This 
was  done  because  the  Loup  was  considered  as  being  "  a 
typical  river  of  the  plains,"  in  which  it  heads,  and  to 
which  its  entire  course  is  confined ;  hence  it  naturally 
exhibits  in  the  highest  degree  those  peculiarities  which 
characterize  the  drainage  of  the  treeless  belt.  This 
valley  is  also  of  interest  because  it  lies  "  in  the  debat- 
able zone,  the  subhumid,  where  the  question  is  forever 
recurring  <to  irrigate,  or  not  to  irrigate';  where  the 
rainfall  is  copious  enough  to  encourage  the  farmer  to 
plant,  and  in  most  seasons  fills  the  land  with  plenty, 
but  sometimes  fails  at  the  critical  moment." 

The  Loup  Valley  has  a  well  defined  watershed 
on  the  south  and  east,  but  to  the  north  and  west  the 

1  Professor  Hicks  remarks  that  "the  main  Loup  is  distinguished 
among  the  rivers  of  the  treeless  belt  for  the  large  and  constant  volume 
of  water  which  it  maintains  throughout  the  year." 


THE  LOUP  VALLEY.  209 

"  drainage  merges  gradually  into  an  undrained  region 
of  sand  hills  and  lagoons  where  it  is  impossible  to  draw 
an  exact  boundary  line."  Of  the  whole  Loup  area, 
which  equals  a  little  over  thirteen  thousand  square 
miles,  about  thirty-five  per  cent  is  without  drainage, 
the  surface  being  destitute  of  streams  and  even  of  dry 
channels  of  streams,  but  chiefly  occupied  by  lagoons, 
sand-hills,  and  valleys  of  an  old  drainage  system  now 
filled  with  silt.  These  topographic  forms  are  such  as 
would  naturally  be  found  in  a  region  very  nearly  level, 
having  a  decidedly  moderate  rainfall,  and  covered  by  a 
considerable  but  variable  thickness  of  sandy  detritus, 
the  result  of  a  long  continued  erosion  and  disintegration, 
in  which  both  atmospheric  and  pluvial  agencies  have 
taken  part.  From  this  undrained  area  streams  gather 
the  moisture,  at  first  almost  imperceptibly,  but  after 
they  have  pursued  their  course  for  a  sufficient  distance 
they  have  gained  in  strength  so  that  they  are  able  to 
form  regular  channels,  bordered  by  low  bluffs,  and 
having  the  ordinary  cross-section  of  the  valleys  of 
those  Western  rivers  which  flow  with  varying  volume 
and  inconsiderable  depth  over  a  region  which  has  a 
very  slight  but  regular  gradient  and  great  uniformity 
of  geological  structure.  In  the  higher  and  drier  region 
the  sands  are  more  or  less  shifted  by  the  wind,  the 
action  of  which  becomes,  with  the  general  gradually 
increasing  desiccation  of  the  region,  sufficiently  marked 
to  give  rise  to  topographical  features  which,  in  a 
country  which  is  so  nearly  a  dead  level,  may  become 
of  comparative  importance. 

In  the  valley  of  the  Loup  the  region  of  sand-hills 
and  table-lands  is  said  to  present  unsurmountable  ob- 

u 


210  THE  LOUP  VALLEY. 

stacles  to  irrigation,  but  the  bottoms  lie  near  enough 
to  the  drainage  level  to  be  easily  supplied  with  water 
by  means  of  short  ditches,  and  one  eighth  of  the 
whole  Loup  area  is  believed  to  be  capable  of  being  irri- 
gated in  this  way.  With  the  usual  sanguine  expecta- 
tions of  the  officials  of  the  Irrigation  Surveys,  however, 
Professor  Hicks  has  large  views  with  regard  to  the 
future  of  what  seems  to  inhabitants  of  a  region  more 
favored  than  the  Loup  Valley  to  have  many  and  very 
decided  disadvantages  for  settlers.  "  The  occupation  of 
the  country,"  it  is  said,  "  and  all  the  operations  of 
agriculture  will  augment  and  intensify  the  excellent 
combinations  of  natural  conditions  in  this  valley.  .  .  . 
Deep  and  frequent  tillage  of  the  table  lands  and  hill 
slopes  will  secure  more  immediate  and  complete  ab- 
sorption and  retention  of  the  rainfall.  Irrigation  in 
the  valleys  will  spread  out  the  waters  and  retain  them 
longer,  permitting  them  to  escape  only  by  evaporation, 
which  will  increase  the  humidity  of  the  air  and  pro- 
mote precipitation,  or  by  slow  percolation  through  the 
soil  and  subsoil.  Lastly  foresting  of  the  sand  hills,  if 
this  shall  ever  be  happily  accomplished  by  combined 
and  persistent  efforts  of  individuals,  or  by  a  liberal 
policy  on  the  part  of  the  national  or  State  govern- 
ment, will  do  more  than  all  other  artificial  operations 
to  ameliorate  the  climate." 

The  report  of  Professor  Culver,  which  follows  that 
of  which  an  analysis  has  been  given  in  the  preceding 
pages,1  is  chiefly  devoted  to  a  recapitulation  of  the 
geological  conditions  of  the  Dakota  Basin,  in  regard  to 
which  some  information  has  already  been  given  in  the 

1  For  the  title  of  Professor  Culver's  report,  see  ante,  p.  145. 


THE  DAKOTA  BASIN.  211 

present  volume.1  This  basin  consists  of  a  low  broad 
synclinal,  of  which  the  eastern  edge  is  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  Dakotas,  and  the  western  near  the  foothills 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  water-bearing  forma- 
tion of  the  Dakota  Basin  is  the  Dakota  sandstone, 
which  is  exposed  along  the  Big  Sioux  River  in  South 
Dakota,  and  farther  south  dips  gently  to  the  north- 
west, while  the  surface  rises  in  the  same  direction.  In 
the  valleys  of  the  Missouri,  Big  Sioux,  James,  and  Ver- 
milion the  covering  of  this  sandstone  is  so  thin  that 
the  water  escapes  upward,  giving  rise  to  springs,  which 
extend  from  Chamberlain,  on  the  Missouri,  to  Sioux 
City,  in  Iowa,  this  causing,  as  is  thought,  a  diminution 
in  the  pressure  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  basin. 
The  eastern  border  of  the  Dakota  Basin  in  South 
Dakota  follows  approximately  the  divide  between 
the  Big  Sioux  and  James  Rivers ;  farther  north,  in 
North  Dakota,  it  is  not  clearly  defined.  Neither  the 
Artesian  wells  of  the  Red  River  Valley  nor  the  shallow 
wells  of  Southeastern  South  Dakota  are  connected  with 
the  Dakota  Artesian  basin.  The  region  where  the 
Dakota  sandstone  receives  its  supply  of  water  is  along 
the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  where  this  formation 
comes  to  the  surface,  or  is  so  thinly  covered  that  the 
rainfall  finds  its  way  into  it.  It  has  not  yet  been 
proved  that  the  water  from  this  formation  will  rise 
to  the  surface  in  the  more  elevated  parts  of  the  basin, 
the  pressure  in  the  best  wells  in  the  James  Valley 
not  being  sufficient  to  cause  it  to  reach  an  elevation 
greater  than  2,000  feet  above  the  sea  level.2 

1  See  ante,  pp.  113,  114,  142. 

2  The  hypsometric  maps  of  this  region  are  not  sufficiently  detailed 
to  make  it  possible  to  fix  with  any  approach  to  accuracy  the  limits  of 


212  THE  DAKOTA  BASIN. 

In  the  southeastern  part  of  the  Dakota  Basin  the 
water-bearing  sandstone  lies  directly  on  the  Archaean 
or  Azoic  series ;  to  the  north  and  west  the  wells  have 
rarely  been  drilled  to  a  sufficient  depth  to  prove  the 
nature  of  the  underlying  rock.  The  uniformity  of  the 
stratification  of  the  Cretaceous  series  in  the  Upper 
Missouri  region  is  a  very  marked  feature  of  its  geology, 
the  formation  being  not  only  continuous  and  developed 
with  similar  characters  over  a  very  wide  area,  but 
being  also  unbroken  by  faults,  and  only  in  the  extreme 
western  part  of  the  area  disturbed  by  the  intrusion  of 
volcanic  masses,  the  effect  of  which  on  the  water  condi- 
tions is  only  local.  This  feature  of  the  geology  is 
considered  as  being  highly  favorable  to  Artesian  de- 
velopment, removing  much  of  the  uncertainty  which 
exists  in  many  regions  where  this  source  of  water- 
supply  is  sought  to  be  introduced. 

In  regard  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  water 
obtained  in  the  Dakota  Basin,  the  information  given 
in  Professor  Culver's  report  is  by  no  means  as  satis- 
factory as  could  be  wished.  As  to  quantity,  the  most 
satisfactory  evidence  is  said  to  be  that  furnished  by  the 
wells  themselves.  The  fact  that  many  of  these  have 
been  flowing  for  five  years  "  points  to  an  abundant 
supply,  but  does  not  prove  it." 

In  concluding  his  report  Professor  Culver  adds  some 
remarks  in  regard  to  the  geology  and  water  condition 

the  Dakota  Basin.  On  Mr.  Gannett's  latest  map  the  2,000-foot  hypso- 
metric curve  follows  pretty  closely  the  right  bank  of  the  Missouri,  and 
at  no  great  distance  from  it,  through  South  Dakota,  in  which  State  it 
does  not  appear  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river ;  but  a  considerable 
part  of  North  Dakota,  including  all  the  area  west  of  the  Missouri,  and 
a  broad  belt  to  the  east  of  that  river  in  the  northern  half  of  the  State, 
lies  above  that  curve. 


THE  BLACK  HILLS.  213 

of  the  Black  Hills,  of  which  a  hasty  reconnaissance  was 
made.  The  central  or  axial  area  of  this  outlier  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  consists  of  ancient  schists  (Archaean 
or  Azoic),  extending  for  a  length  of  about  sixty  miles 
north  and  south,  and  having  a  width  of  from  ten  to 
twenty-five.  These  rocks  have  been  very  extensively 
eroded,  and  as  a  consequence  are  cut  into  ridges  with 
prominent  elevated  peaks,  and  intersected  by  valleys, 
which  are  wooded  in  the  northern  part  of  the  area,  and 
are  diversified  with  park-like  openings  toward  the  south. 
This  older  axial  mass  is  surrounded  by  a  series  of 
rudely  oval  concentric  valleys  representing  the  various 
formations  which  encircle  the  nucleus,  and  which  are 
made  up  of  stratified  rocks  of  Palaeozoic,  Triassic,  Ju- 
rassic, and  Cretaceous  age.  Next  to  the  central  Azoic 
peaks,  the  Red  Valley  (Triassic)  and  an  outer  wall  of 
the  Dakota  sandstone  (the  lowest  member  of  the  Creta- 
ceous) are  the  most  prominent  topographical  features  of 
the  Black  Hills.  The  drainage  of  this  area  is  almost 
entirely  toward  the  east,  and  the  streams  are  all  formed 
by  springs  which  rise  at  the  lower  edge  of  the  Azoic 
nucleus.  Most  of  these  sink  on  reaching  the  Carbon- 
iferous limestone,  which  forms  the  upper  division  of 
the  Palaeozoic.  Several  streams  are  mentioned  which 
do  not  now  sink,  although  they  formerly  did  so,  and 
this  is  believed  to  be  the  result  of  the  active  mining 
operations  which  have  been  going  on  for  some  years 
in  the  region  above,  and  which  have  caused  large 
quantities  of  sand  and  mud  to  be  carried  down  the 
creeks.  The  area  of  the  Black  Hills  region  is  about 
5,000  square  miles,  and  the  average  rainfall  is  said  to 
be  twenty  inches,  of  which  one  seventh  is  supposed  to 


214  TEST  WELLS  NEEDED. 

fall  on  the  Dakota  sandstone,  so  that  the  drainage  of 
this  region  must  "  contribute  quite  largely  to  the  Ar- 
tesian supply  [of  those  districts  in  which  the  water  is 
obtained  from  this  formation  (?)]  ;  and  the  Black  Hills 
in  this  relation  may  be  considered  as  an  outlier  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains." 

Professor  Culver,  in  closing  his  report,  suggests  that 
there  are  several  districts  which  need  more  careful 
examination,  and  in  which  "  test  wells  "  are  desirable. 
The  region  between  the  James  River  district  and  the 
Missouri  River  is  said  to  have  been  only  hastily  ex- 
amined, and  two  wells  here  would  settle  the  question 
whether  water  will  rise  to  the  surface  or  not  for  a 
large  area.  Two  test  wells  are  also  recommended  for 
South  Dakota  west  of  the  Missouri,  and  one  for  the  re- 
gion lying  between  the  forks  of  the  Cheyenne  and  the 
Black  Hills.  A  fourth  district  needing  examination 
is  found  in  Western  North  Dakota  and  Montana,  the 
question  here  being  whether  there  is  a  higher  water- 
bearing rock  than  the  Dakota  sandstone,  in  regard  to 
which  it  is  said  that  "  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  flows 
like  those  of  the  James  River  district  will  be  found,  but 
water  sufficient  for  domestic  and  stock  use  may  be  in 
the  sands  of  the  Laramie." 

The  question  of  the  adequacy  of  the  supply  is  said 
to  be  "one  of  prime  importance,"  but  to  which  particu- 
lar region  this  remark  is  specially  applicable  is  not 
stated.  It  may,  however,  be  presumed  that  it  relates 
to  the  water-supply  of  the  Great  Plains  in  general,  or  — 
as  perhaps  is  more  probable  —  to  that  of  the  Dakota 
Artesian  Basin,  the  special  subject  of  Professor  Cul- 
ver's report.  A  twelve-inch  well  is  mentioned  as  being 


THE   UNDERWATERS  OF   THE  GREAT  PLAINS.      215 

in  progress  of  construction  at  Yankton,  in  South  Da- 
kota, and  appended  to  this  statement  is  the  remark 
"that  no  basin  has  yet  been  found  in  which  a  limit 
to  the  number  of  wells  it  would  furnish  was  not  soon 
reached;  the  Dakota  basin  has  a  limit,  and  if  it  is 
possible  to  determine  approximately  what  that  limit 
is,  no  better  work  can  be  done  than  that." 

The  fourth  part  of  the  Final  Report  here  under  con- 
sideration is  comparatively  brief,  and  but  a  limited 
amount  of  space  needs  here  to  be  devoted  to  it.1  Here 
again  we  find  the  subject  of  the  underflow  —  or,  as  it 
is  here  called,  the  "underwaters" — of  the  Great  Plains 
the  principal  topic  discussed.  In  fact  Mr.  Gregory 
the  author,  with  the  title  of  Special  Agent,  after 
stating  the  boundaries 2  of  his  field  of  work  —  which, 
as  he  remarks,  "contains  more  than  200,000  square 
miles  and  about  130,000,000  acres  of  territory "  — 
proceeds  to  explain  that  "the  subject  of  investigation 
is  the  subterranean  water  resources  of  the  division." 

As  introductory  to  this  discussion  the  "  surface  char- 
acteristics "  of  the  region  are  described,  which  is  said  to 
consist,  "in  general  terms,  of  a  broad,  treeless  plain"; 
but  this  when  examined  in  detail  is  found  to  be  made 
up  of  alternating  shallow  valleys  and  low  divides, 
extending  from  the  mountains  eastward,  with  a  gradual 
downward  slope  in  the  same  direction.  This  slope  on 

1  This  document  occupies  sixty-one  pages.    For  its  title  and  contents 
see  ante,  p.  123. 

2  These  boundaries  are,  substantially,  the  thirty-sixth  and  forty-third 
parallels  of  latitude,  and  the  ninety-seventh  and  one  hundred  and  fourth 
meridians  of  longitude.     The  region  thus  enclosed  embraces  nearly  all 
of  Nebraska,  the  western  two-thirds   of  Kansas,  the  eastern  third  of 
Colorado,  and  a  narrow  strip  along  the  northern  border  of  the  Indian 
Territory  and  Texas. 


216     SURFACE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE   PLAINS. 

the  100th  meridian  is  about  seven  feet  per  mile,  but  it 
increases  gradually  westward,  so  that  on  the  104th 
meridian  it  is  about  fifteen  feet  per  mile.  As  a  rule 
its  divides  are  broad,  and  the  valleys  narrow  and 
shallow.  The  rise  from  valley  to  upland  is  gradual, 
and  the  highest  portions  of  the  divides  are  from  200 
to  500  feet  above  the  nearest  streams  or  valleys. 
"  Eough  country ''  and  sand-hills  occur,  but  constitute 
only  a  small  portion  of  the  whole  area.  "  Except  a 
small  spot,  here  and  there,  containing  a  few  square  feet 
or  rods,  at  rare  intervals,  in  river  bottoms,  there  are 
no  swamp  lands  in  the  division."  *  The  soil  of  this 
region  is  described  as  being  "  a  tertiary  marl,  of  great 
average  depth  and  extraordinary  fertility,  of  fine  and 
even  texture,  arid  containing  few  or  no  bowlders." 
This  marl  is  said  to  be  "  laid  down  in  vast  beds  form- 
ing almost  unbroken  areas  thousands  of  square  miles 
in  extent "  ;  its  depth  varies  from  three  or  four  feet  to 
upward  of  a  hundred,  but  "  a  depth  of  forty  or  fifty 
feet  is  not  above  the  average." 2 

The  Special  Agent  next  turns  his  attention  to  the 
climate  of  the  region  which  forms  the  subject  of  his 
report.  This  he  describes  as  being  "  equable,  sunny, 
healthful,  and  invigorating,"  while  the  winters  are 
"dry  and  mild."  It  is  said  to  be  a  winter  of  rare 
severity  when  farm-ploughing  cannot  be  done  in  each 
month  of  it,  at  least  as  far  west  as  the  102d  meridian. 

1  But  compare  what  Professor  Hicks  says  of  the  swamps  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  rivers  of  the  Loup  region.     See  ante,  pp.  209,  210. 

2  This  is  the  "  plains  marl "  of  Professor  Hay,  a  description  of  which, 
as  given  by  him,  will  be  found  in  preceding  pages  {ante,  pp.  146-148) 
This  formation  is  there  described  as  being  underlain  by  the  "  Tertiary 
grit,"  which  rock  is  considered  as  being  of  great  importance  over  an 
extensive  area  as  a  source  of  water-supply. 


THE   GREAT  AMERICAN  DESERT.  217 

The  only  thing  needed  "to  make  this  region  both 
densely  populous  and  wonderfully  rich  and  productive 
...  is  a  sufficiency  of  moisture  to  mature  crops."1 

1  Mr.  Gregory  here  introduces  some  remarks  in  regard  to  the  propriety 
of  the  designation  of  "  Great  American  Desert "  by  which,  he  says,  this 
region  for  decades  was  known,  adding  that  it  had  been  pronounced  by 
well  informed  persons  to  be  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  civilized  people ; 
but,  he  proceeds  to  remark,  "  it  was  afterwards  thrown  open  to  settlement 
as  agricultural  land  and  actually  settled  as  such  by  home-seekers  upon 
the  invitation  of  the  General  Government.  There  must  have  been, 
therefore,  mis  judgment  on  one  side  or  the  other."  In  point  of  fact,  the 
name  "  Great  American  Desert  "  was  originally  given  to  the  unexplored 
region  lying  beyond  the  Mississippi  without  any  special  designation  of  its 
limits.  Later,  and  as  early  as  1840-45,  after  some  knowledge  of  this  part 
of  the  country  had  been  acquired,  the  use  of  the  word  "  desert "  began 
to  be  limited  to  what  we  now  call  the  Great  Basin,  which  is  frequently 
spoken  of  by  Fremont  in  his  reports  as  "  the  Desert,"  and  sometimes  as 
the  "  Great  Desert  Basin."  During  the  past  twenty  years  or  more  the 
name  Great  American  Desert  has  been  limited  to  the  tract  of  country 
lying  south  and  west  of  Great  Salt  Lake  which  was  covered  by  its  waters 
at  the  time  of  their  greatest  extension.  This  region  is  with  propriety 
so  named,  since  it  is  not  only  uninhabited  but  entirely  uninhabitable. 
The  meaning  of  the  word "  desert "  has  undergone  a  change  since  it 
was  first  introduced  into  the  English  language.  Properly,  according 
to  its  etymology  (deserere,  to  abandon),  it  does  not  mean  an  uninhabitable 
but  an  uninhabited  place,  or  a  locality  abandoned  or  deserted,  either  per- 
manently or  temporarily,  by  its  inhabitants.  But  since  the  most  exten- 
sive and  best  known  regions  which  are  very  scantily  populated  are  in 
this  condition  because  of  the  lack  of  water,  it  is  natural  that  the  word 
"  desert,"  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term,  should  have  become 
specialized  with  the  meaning  which  it  has  when  the  Desert  of  Sahara  and 
the  Arabian  Desert  are  spoken  of,  these  being  regions  very  thinly  popu- 
lated, nearly  destitute  of  vegetation,  and  scantily  supplied  with  water. 
As  bearing  on  this  question  the  following  quotation  from  Fremont's 
"  Geographical  Memoir  upon  Upper  California  "  (p.  13)  may  be  appended : 
"  Such  is  the  Great  Basin,  heretofore  characterized  as  a  desert,  and  in 
some  respects  meriting  that  appellation;  but  already  demanding  the 
qualification  of  great  exceptions,  and  deserving  the  full  examination  of 
a  thorough  exploration."  Areas  over  which  a  low  temperature,  rather 
than  the  lack  of  moisture,  is  the  prime  cause  of  the  scanty  development 
of  an  arboreal  vegetation,  are  rarely  designated  as  "  deserts."  They  are 
called  in  North  America  "  barrens,"  or  "  barren  lands,"  and  in  Northern 
Europe  and  Asia  "  tundras."  Both  barrens  and  tundras  are  very  thinly 
inhabited. 


218 


RAINFALL   ON  THE  PLAINS. 


Mr.  Gregory  next  proceeds  to  give  some  statistics  of 
the  rainfall  of  his  district,  from  which  it  appears  that 
he  considers  himself  justified  in  drawing  the  conclusion 
"  that  this  region  has  enough  and  to  spare  under  aver- 
age conditions."  This  subject  has  already  received 
attention  in  this  volume ; l  but  as  the  form  in  which 
he  arranges  his  statistics  is  different  from  that  adopted 
by  the  present  writer  it  will  be  worth  while  to  give 
an  abstract  of  Mr.  Gregory's  results.2 

The  following  table,  compiled  by  Mr.  Gregory,  shows 
the  mean  annual  precipitation  along  the  various  merid- 
ians from  the  99th  to  the  104th,  as  also  the  amount 
of  rainfall  from  April  to  September  inclusive,  and  the 
percentage  of  the  summer  rainfall. 


Meridian. 

Mean  Annual 
Precipitation. 

Rainfall  from  April  1  to  September  1, 
inclusive. 

99th 

Inches. 
25.48 

Inches. 

18.57 

Percentage. 

73 

100th 

21.45 

15.33 

72 

101st 

17.85 

14.42 

81 

102d 

17.30 

12.97 

75 

103d 

16.40 

12.61 

76 

104th 

14.85 

11.06 

73 

The  average  annual  precipitation  of  the  whole  dis- 
trict is  said  to  be  18.89  inches,  of  which  three  fourths 
fall  in  the  summer,  or  from  April  to  September, 
inclusive. 

1  See  ante,  pp.  37,  38. 

2  One  important  difference  between  the  results  presented  on  a  preced- 
ing page  of  this  volume  and  those  contained  in  Mr.  Gregory's  report  is, 
that  the  former  depend  exclusively  on  observations  made   at  stations 
during  a  period  of  at  least  ten  years,  while  the  latter  embrace   many 
localities  where  observations  were  continued  for  only  a  little  more  than 
twelve  months. 


THE   ARID  REGION  LIMIT.  219 

Here  follows  a  discussion  as  to  the  minimum  amount 
of  rainfall  necessary  for  the  successful  pursuit  of  agri- 
culture, and  the  opinion  of  A.  W.  Greely,  Chief  Sig- 
nal Officer,  published  in  1889,  is  quoted  in  support  of 
the  idea  that  the  "  arid  region  limit "  should  be  fixed 
at  fifteen  inches,  and  not  at  twenty,  as  had  been  pre- 
viously done  by  the  Director  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey ;  for,  as  Mr.  Greely  observes  in 
support  of  this  idea,  "  the  fact  that  wheat  can  be  grown 
without  irrigation  where  the  annual  rainfall  is  less  than 
twenty  inches  is  evidenced  by  official  statistics  from 
Dakota,  which  show  that  wheat  is  grown  by  tens  of 
millions  of  bushels  yearly  in  sections  where  the  rainfall 
ranges.from  twenty  inches  downward.  To  this  state- 
ment is  added  another,  quoted  from  a  report  made  by 
the  same  official,  to  the  effect  that  "  regions  where  the 
annual  rainfall  ranges  from  thirty  to  fifty  inches 
have  been  visited  by  the  most  serious  and  protracted 
droughts,"  and  this  is  adduced  as  a  reason  why  the 
arid  region  limit  should  be  reduced  from  twenty  to 
fifteen  inches.  Furthermore  the  Chief  Signal  Officer 
"does  not  hesitate  to  express  the  opinion  that  the 
trans-Mississippi  and  trans-Missouri  rainfall  is  slightly 
increasing  as  a  whole,  though  in  certain  localities  it 
may  be  slightly  decreasing."  l 

In  the  report  here  under  examination  the  subject  of 
the  "  need  of  irrigation  "  is  next  taken  up  for  considera- 
tion, and  various  statements  are  made  with  reference 
to  this  matter,  having  for  their  object  to  prove  that 
irrigation  is  not  an  absolute  necessity  in  the  region 

1  Quoted  from  a  report  on  "  Rainfall  in  Washington,  Oregon,"  etc., 
p.  15.  This  matter  will  receive  attention  in  Appendix  B. 


220  IDEAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PLAINS. 

under  consideration.  Various  localities  are  mentioned 
where  "  timber-culture  experiments  "  have  been  carried 
on  without  irrigation,  and  with  success,  and  one  is  speci- 
fied near  Denver,  where  also,  except  for  a  short  time 
at  the  very  beginning,  without  irrigation,  "  there  is  to- 
day a  magnificent  young  orchard  of  bearing  fruit  trees 
at  the  one  hundred  and  fifth  meridian,  upon  the  western 
extreme  of  the  '  Great  American  Desert,'  where  the 
annual  average  rainfall  for  a  period  of  eighteen  years 
has  been  but  14.6  inches." 

What  might  have  taken  place  in  the  arid  and  semi- 
arid  region  of  the  United  States,  if  the  resources  of 
the  region  had  been  developed  by  settlers  in  a  manner 
such  as  it  is  only  possible  that  they  should  have  -been  in 
a  region  favored  ~by  an  abundant  precipitation  is  thus 
fancifully  depicted  by  Mr.  Gregory,  who  says  :  "  If 
it  could  have  been  brought  about  that  the  whole  of 
this  region  [the  Great  Plains]  could  have  been  settled 
in  a  single  season,  or  two  or  three,  by  a  class  of  people 
each  one  of  whom  should  have  been  possessed  of  the 
discernment,  training,  natural  aptitude,  and  knowledge 
of  what  he  wished  to  do,  which  characterize  the  super- 
intendent of  the  forestry  station  referred  to,  each  able 
and  willing  to  practice  the  industry  and  frugality  of  the 
Germans  of  the  Thurman  Colony,  each  having  the  sur- 
plus means  with  which  to  provide  all  needful  buildings, 
seeds,  plants,  and  farming  tools  to  emulate  the  Ken- 
tucky settlers  in  Stevens  County,  and  to  enable  them  to 
continue  work  three  or  four  years,  if  need  be,  at  large  ex- 
pense, before  any  returns  could  begin,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
nursery-men  who  have  grown  the  unirrigated  orchards 
at  Denver,  then  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  sudden 


ACTUAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PLAINS.         221 

cessation  of  prairie  fires,  the  wide-spread  planting  of 
groves  and  orchards  and  belts  of  timber  as  windbreaks, 
the  upturning  and  thorough  cultivation  of  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  surface  soil  on  every  habitable  quarter 
section,  and  the  covering  of  millions  of  acres  of  land, 
theretofore  almost  as  bare  as  a  slate  roof,  with  green,  lux- 
uriant, and  succulent  vegetation  would  have  worked 
an  almost  miraculous  change  ;  the  desert  would  have 
blossomed  and  borne  fruit  often  enough,  without  the 
aid  of  irrigation,  to  make  the  Plains  as  a  whole  hab- 
itable after  a  fashion."  That,  however,  the  wealth  and 
intellect  of  the  country  should  have  been  concentrated 
for  years  on  the  task  of  making  a  region  which  was 
distant,  not  easily  accessible,  destitute  of  timber  for  fuel 
or  building,  and  poorly  supplied  with  water,  "  as  a 
whole  habitable  after  a  fashion,"  was  something  hardly 
to  be  expected.  On  the  contrary,  the  natural  result  of 
these  adverse  conditions  has  been  entirely  different,  and 
what  has  really  happened  can  best  be  described  in  Mr. 
Gregory's  own  graphic  words  :  "  The  semi-arid  region 
has  been,  and  unless  proper  efforts  shall  be  made  to 
prevent  will  still  be,  an  absorbent  of  wealth  and  energy ; 
a  famine-breeding,  heart-breaking  zone ;  a  mirage  to 
tempt  men  to  ruin  ;  and  the  question  is  asked  whether 
it  should  not  be  made  certainly  habitable  or  settlement 
there,  under  ordinary  conditions,  prevented." 

The  manner  in  which  the  settlement  of  the  semi-arid 
region  could  be  prevented  by  the  General  Government 
is  not  indicated  by  Mr.  Gregory,  neither  is  the  possi- 
bility of  such  a  thing  being  done  even  hinted  at  by 
him,  any  further  than  it  is  done  in  the  paragraph 
quoted  above.  On  the  contrary,  that  author  proceeds 


222  HOW  THE  PLAINS  MAY  BE  RECLAIMED. 

at  once  to  assert  that  "  all  of  the  arable  land  of  the 
Great  Plains  may  be,  and  ultimately  undoubtedly  will 
be,  reclaimed  and  made  habitable  "  :  not  only,  however, 
does  he  make  this  assertion,  but  he  adds  that  "  an  ex- 
ceptionally dense  and  prosperous  population  may  be 
supported  thereon." 

That  this  extraordinary  development  of  the  agricul- 
tural capacity  of  the  Great  Plains  will  take  place  is 
a  theory  said  to  be  based  on  three  facts  :  1st,  the 
great  retentiveness  of  moisture  by  the  marly  soil  of 
that  region  ;  2d,  the  large  proportion  of  the  annual 
rainfall  which  occurs  during  the  growing  season,  or 
from  the  beginning  of  May  to  the  end  of  August ;  3d, 
the  existence  of  "  stores  of  accessible  water  underly- 
ing and  overflowing  the  entire  Plains  region."  The 
means  by  which  the  semi-arid  lands  may  be  reclaimed 
are  classified  as  follows :  "  1st,  the  recovery  of  under- 
ground water  by  gravity,  by  mechanical  means,  and 
by  Artesian  wells ;  2d,  the  storage  and  conservation  of 
other  waters ;  this  involves  not  only  the  construction 
of  reservoirs,  but  the  protection  and  extension  of 
forests ;  3d,  the  greatest  economy  and  care  in  the 
use  of  the  water  supplies."  The  methods  suggested 
by  means  of  which  this  economy  may  be  put  in  prac- 
tice are  the  gradual  saturation  of  the  soil,  experience 
in  the  application  of  water  to  the  soil,  and  the  adop- 
tion of  the  most  highly  economical  methods  of  its  use, 
the  growing  of  crops  best  adapted  to  the  climate,  and 
largely  increased  thoroughness  of  cultivation.  The  pre- 
vention of  prairie  fires  is  looked  upon,  in  this  con- 
nection, as  a  most  important  element  in  the  work  of 
reclamation,  but  no  method  is  suggested  by  which  this 


THE   GOVERNMENT  MUST  DO  IT.  223 

can  be  accomplished.  It  is  admitted  that  "working 
people  with  families  to  support  and  educate  —  and  others 
with  accumulations  of  debt  instead  of  surplus  property 
—  are  not  prepared  to  await  for  years  the  changes 
which  are  necessary  to  convert  desert  lands  into 
farms." 

Finally,  the  Special  Agent  falls  back  on  the  opinion 
so  generally  held  by  the  settlers  on  the  Plains,  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  General  Government  to  interfere  in 
their  behalf,  and  the  following  statement  to  that  effect 
is  made :  "  The  opinion  prevails  among  the  common 
people  throughout  the  division  that  the  Government 
should  cause  a  few  practical  demonstrations  of  the  ex- 
istence, availability,  and  economical  conservation  of 
water  supplies,  so  that  private  capital  may  be  induced 
to  invest  in  the  work  of  development  to  the  fullest 
extent  and  upon  an  assured  footing.  This  opinion  is 
founded  upon  the  fact  that  not  only  have  the  settlers 
upon  such  lands  paid  for  the  same,  into  the  United 
States  Treasury,  very  large  sums  of  money  —  this 
alone  constituting,  as  they  believe,  a  sufficient  reason 
for  the  active  intervention  of  the  Government  in  mat- 
ters of  irrigation  development  for  their  benefit  —  but, 
further,  such  action  upon  the  part  of  the  General 
Government  as  would  take  the  lead  in  the  provision 
of  general  systems  of  irrigation  works  would  confirm 
to  the  National  Government,  fully  and  unquestionably, 
the  right  to  make  such  regulations  for  their  use  as  will 
inure  most  largely  to  the  benefit  of  the  people.  And 
such  are  the  intermingling,  interdependent  interests  of 
individuals,  communities,  and  States  in  the  general 
development  of  the  means  of  irrigation  upon  the  Great 


224  ARTESIAN   WELLS  ON  THE  PLAINS. 

Plains,  that  the  regulation  of  such  works  and  the 
settlement  of  the  grave  questions  arising  from  the  use 
of  the  same  may  proceed,  it  is  believed,  only  from  the 
National  Government;  that  there  is  no  other  possible 
source  of  such  regulation/' 

After  this  somewhat  introductory  matter,  Mr.  Greg- 
ory proceeds  to  take  up  in  some  detail  the  subjects  of 
Artesian  wells  and  the  underflow  in  his  district.  It  is 
candidly  admitted,  at  the  outset,  that  Artesian  wells, 
"  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  remain  an  insignifi- 
cant factor  in  the  problem  of  arid  land  reclamation  so 
far  as  concerns  this  division."  Various  small  Artesian 
areas  are  enumerated,  one  of  which  (in  Meade  County, 
Kansas *)  irrigates  at  present  about  1,200  acres  of  land  ; 
another  (in  Stevens  County,  Kansas),  will  "  probably 
be  developed";  and  seven  more  in  the  same  State2 
have  "  a  flow  too  weak  to  render  them  of  appreciable 
value  for  irrigation."  To  this  enumeration  of  actual 
results  is  added  the  statement  that  "  there  is,  at  present, 
nothing  to  indicate  that  the  supply  of  water  from  such 
sources,  considering  the  cost  of  procuring  the  same, 
will  be  of  appreciable  value  to  the  general  irrigation 
of  the  lands  of  the  district.3 

In  regard  to  a  subject  which  has  already  more  than 
once  been  brought  up  in  the  present  volume  for  dis- 
cussion —  the  underflow,  namely  —  Mr.  Gregory  has 
much  to  say,  and  with  the  consideration  of  this  phenom- 
enon his  report  is  chiefly  occupied.  "  Since  the  begin- 

1  See  ante,  p.  116. 

2  See  ante,  pp.  154,  155. 

8  Yet  a  few  pages  earlier  in  this  report  Artesian  wells  are  specified 
as  one  of  the  important  means  by  which  the  semi-arid  lands  are  to  be 
reclaimed. 


THE  UNDERFLOW.  225 

ning  of  settlement  of  the  Plains/'  it  is  said,  "  people 
have  been  familiar  with  the  fact  that,  throughout  the 
whole  region,  excepting  in  isolated  cases  and  in  certain 
small  areas,  wells  obtain  their  supply  from  what  is 
popularly  known  as  '  sheet  water/  and  that  this  has 
proven  a  copious  and  inexhaustible  supply."  Two 
diagrams  are  furnished  illustrating  the  mode  of  occur- 
rences of  this  "  sheet  water";  in  one  it  is  represented 
as  saturating  sand  or  gravel,  or  both,  which  occupies 
large  depressions  scooped  out  in  the  underlying  imper- 
vious strata,  these  sand-filled  cavities  having  little  or 
no  apparent  communication  with  one  another ;  the 
other  diagram  shows  the  water-bearing  strata  as  form- 
ing a  continuous  mass  underlain  by  impervious  rocks 
and  overlain  by  soil,  and  this  latter  condition  is 
thought  to  obtain  "  at  least  locally,"  because  "  all  the 
larger  streams  and  most  of  the  small  ones  traversing 
the  Plains  from  west  to  east  flow  over  beds  of  water- 
bearing grit,  ranging  from  a  few  feet  to  hundreds  of 
feet  in  depth,  and  of  unknown  lateral  extent."  That 
there  must  be  a  current  throughout  large  portions  of 
these  same  beds  is  said  "  to  be  evident  upon  the  most 
cursory  examination  of  the  facts."  In  contradiction 
to  what  has  been  asserted  by  other  irrigation  officials 
in  regard  to  the  difficulty  of  establishing  the  fact  of 
the  existence  of  such  a  current,  and  especially  of  deter- 
mining its  rate  of  flow/  Mr.  Gregory  maintains  that 
"  in  some  cases  the  flow  of  the  water  may  be  plainly 
seen,  while  in  others  the  existence  of  a  current  is 
indicated  only  by  the  fact  that  bits  of  wood,  paper, 
straw,  etc.,  blown  into  the  wells,  gather  closely  against 

1  See  ante,  pp.  140,  141. 
15 


226  EVIDENCES  OF  AN  UNDERFLOW. 

the  eastern  wall  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours."  Vari- 
ous other  statements  are  made,  based  on  information 
obtained  from  residents  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  in 
regard  to  the  ease  with  which  artificial  ponds  can  be 
formed  "  by  scraping  away  the  surface  soil,  and  enough 
of  the  underlying  sand  to  make  basins  for  the  sub- 
water."  No  less  than  thirty  citizens  of  the  semi-arid 
region  furnish  statements,  the  general  character  of 
which  may  be  inferred  from  the  perusal  of  one  of 
them,  which  is  here  given  in  full,  and  which  reads  as 
follows  :  "  We  are  located  on  an  ocean  of  water,  which 
can  easily  be  made  to  flow  to  the  surface  perpetually 
in  sufficient  quantities  to  flood  the  whole  country  at 
any  and  all  times."  This  is  from  C.  H.  Longstreth,  of 
Lakin,  Kearney  County,  Kansas.  In  addition  to  this 
testimony  that  of  twelve  other  residents  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  is  furnished,  to  the  effect  that,  when  water  is 
struck  in  the  wells  of  this  region,  it  rises  to  a  consider- 
able height  above  the  bottom  of  the  bore-hole. 

More  remarkable  still  is  the  statement  by  Mr.  Gregory 
that  there  are  "  known  to  be  many  and  large  subter- 
ranean streams  throughout  the  region  of  country  to  the 
southeastward,  even  to  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  inter- 
esting stories  are  told  of  immense  fresh  water  springs 
off  the  South  Atlantic  coast  and  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
which  send  up  from  beneath  such  floods  of  water  that 
it  may  be  dipped  up  fresh  and  drinkable  from  the 
midst  of  the  sea."  In  corroboration  of  this  statement 
a  letter  is  inserted  from  the  Superintendent  of  the 
United  States  Coast  Survey  from  which  it  appears 
that  there  is  a  spring  "  actually  furnishing  fresh  water, 
about  three  miles  off  the  coast  abreast  of  St.  Augus- 


UTILIZING  THE   UNDERFLOW.  227 

tine,"  and  that  there  are  rumors  of  a  similar  spring  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River,  "  but  our  surveying 
parties  have  never  happened  to  find  it."  The  connec- 
tion of  a  submarine  spring  of  fresh  water  near  the 
Atlantic  coast,  entirely  to  the  east  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  with  the  drainage  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  as 
"  evidence  of  the  existence  of  great  stores  of  subter- 
ranean waters  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Plains,"  as 
is  done  by  Mr.  Gregory  farther  on  in  his  report  seems 
to  imply  the  possession  on  his  part  of  an  extremely 
vivid  imagination.  That,  in  spite  of  the  denial  by  the 
Coast  Survey  authorities  of  there  being  any  proof  of 
the  existence  of  such  springs  off  the  Gulf  Coast,  they 
should  also  be  used  in  a  similar  way  to  support  the 
theory  of  the  underflow  in  its  most  exaggerated  and 
extravagant  form,  is  a  fact  in  regard  to  which  comment 
is  unnecessary.  Only  Mr.  Catlin  has  gone  one  step 
farther  in  the  same  direction,  and  utilized  this  subterra- 
nean current  for  the  formation  of  the  Gulf  Stream.1 

Among  the  various  methods  for  utilizing  the  "  sheet 
waters "  of  the  Plains,  that  depending  on  the  use 
of  mechanical  means  (hoisting  machinery  driven  by 
steam,  wind,  or  horse  power)  needs  no  explanation ; 
the  method  "  by  force  of  gravity,"  to  use  the  term  em- 
ployed by  Mr.  Gregory,  is  somewhat  peculiar,  and  is 
worthy  of  notice. 

This  "  recovery  of  under  water  by  gravity  "  is  said 
to  be  "  up  to  the  present  time  that  which  is  attract- 
ing attention  and  to  which  experimentation  has  been 

1  See,  for  Mr.  Catlin's  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  ante, 
p.  110;  and  for  Professor  Hay's  remarks  on  the  exaggerated  ideas  of  the 
underflow  current  in  the  arid  region,  ante,  pp.  151-153. 


228  THE  FOUNTAIN  METHOD. 

confined."  It  is  called  by  Mr.  Gregory  "  the  fountain 
method  " ; 1  and  is  said  to  consist  "  of  simply  drifting 
from  the  surface  of  the  ground  into  the  water-bearing 
strata  by  means  of  an  open-cut  or  '  fountain/  having 
a  less  rate  of  inclination  than  has  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  and  of  the  water-bearing  stratum  penetrated." 
This  method  of  securing  water  from  the  underflow  is 
said  to  be  under  test  in  a  number  of  places.  Dodge  City, 
Kansas,  on  the  Arkansas  River,  is  mentioned  as  being 
the  first  place  where  this  method  of  obtaining  water 
was  tried,  and  the  main  canal  served  by  this  fountain 
is  thirty-five  miles  long,  carrying  about  one  hundred 
cubic  feet  per  second,  a  quantity  considered  sufficient  to 
irrigate  15,000  acres.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river 
is  the  so-called  Eureka  Canal  system,  which  has  a  length 
of  ninety-six  miles  and  has  cost  about  $2,000,000.  The 
"fountain"  to  supply  this  canal  was,  at  the  time  Mr. 
Gregory's  report  was  made,  in  process  of  construction, 
a  cutting  twenty  feet  wide,  500  feet  long,  and  eighty 
feet  deep  having  been  made,  from  which  water  was  to 
be  pumped  into  the  canal  by  centrifugal  pumps. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  construction  of  these 
sub-canals  has  been  attempted  anywhere  except  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  a  considerable  river,  with  the 
course  of  which  they  are  parallel,  the  object  seeming 
to  be  to  obtain  a  permanent  flow  of  water  from  the 
saturated  sand  and  gravel  even  when  the  river  bed 
itself  is  entirely  dry  owing  to  the  greater  evaporation 

1  To  a  description  of  this  method  in  Mr.  Gregory's  report  the  following 
note  is  appended  :  "  The  word  '  fountain  '  was  adopted  and  is  used  by  Mr. 
Gregory ;  the  l  investigation '  decided  on  the  word  *  sub-canals,'  and  has 
used  it  everywhere  else  in  the  reports." 


THE  FOUNTAIN  METHOD.          229 

of  the  shallow  stream  when  not  concentrated  in  a  deep 
channel.1 

Several  cities  are  said  by  Mr.  Gregory  to  pursue 
essentially  the  same  plan  in  securing  their  water 
supply,  "  but  generally  in  such  cases,  the  open  fountain 
is  replaced  by  sub-canal  or  pipe  line  piercing  the  under 
water.  Denver,  Colorado,  and  Cheyenne,  Wyoming, 
have  systems  of  this  sort.  Such  works  are  necessarily 
expensive  and  could  rarely  be  profitably  employed  for 
irrigation  purposes."  2 

It  has  been  generally  held  by  climatologists  and 
others,  that  water  raised  from  below  and  spread  out 

1  Thus,  in  a  statement  by  the  engineer  of  a  system  of  canals  belonging 
to  the   Southwestern   Irrigating  Company,   having  its    headquarters    at 
Garden  City,  Kansas,  it  is  mentioned  that  when  this  work  was  begun  the 
Arkansas  River  was  dry.     At  the  highest  stage  of  water  in  the  river,  it 
was  from  seven  to  nine  feet  higher  than  the  water  in  the  ditch  for  a  period 
of  two  months,  during  which  time  the  latter  increased  in  flow  about  one 
third,  as  would  naturally  be  expected  since  the  ditch  and  river  ran  parallel 
with  each  other  for  a  distance  of  1,000  feet,  and  were  only  one  hundred 
feet  apart.      Yet  the  engineer  considers  this  a  proof  that  the  water  in 
the  ditch  is  substantially  obtained  from  the  underflow.     The   method   of 
obtaining  water  for  city  use  by  excavating  filter  chambers  in  the  gravelly 
bed  of  a  river  not  far  distant  from  the  river  itself  is  not  uncommon  in  the 
Eastern  States,  but  this  seepage  has  never  there  been  called  an  "  under- 
flow," nor  considered  part  of  a  great  sheet  of  water   running   from    the 
crest  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

2  This  method  of   water-supply  is  somewhat  like  one  extensively  em- 
ployed in  Persia.     In  that  country,  which  so  much  resembles  the  Ameri- 
can  Great  Basin   in   topographical   character   and   climate,   subterranean 
canals  are  cut  often  for  considerable  distances  (Elphinstone  speaks  of  one 
thirty-six   miles  in  length)  in  the  limestone  gravels.     These  conduits  are 
often  at  great  depths  beneath  the  surface,  and  are  reached  by  large  wells, 
down  which  a  descent  is  made  by  steps.     The  skill  with  which  by  this 
method  water  is  brought  from  the  mountains  in  such  a  way  as  to  insure  a 
minimum  of  evaporation  is  indeed  wonderful,  and  has  been  the  object  of 
comment  on  the  part  of  travellers  and  historians  from  Polybius  down  to 
the   most    modern    times.      These   subterranean   canals   or  conduits   are 
called  by  the  Persians  Kandts  or  Kondts. 


230  UTILIZATION  OF  THE   UNDERFLOW. 

upon  the  surface  for  irrigational  purposes  was  in  this 
manner  brought  under  favorable  conditions  for  rapid 
evaporation,  and  that  consequently  a  large  part  of  it 
would  be  lost ;  hence,  as  Mr.  Gregory  remarks,  there 
has  been  some  apprehension  expressed  by  people  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  Arkansas  and  Platte  valleys 
"  that  the  use  of  the  underflow  for  irrigation  in  the 
regions  west  of  them  may  deplete  their  supply  of  water 
for  domestic  use."  This  fear,  the  Special  Agent  thinks, 
is  groundless.  On  the  contrary,  "  the  widest  possible 
utilization  of  the  underflow,  gradually  brought  about, 
will  largely  add  to  the  subterranean  waters  instead  of 
exhausting  them."  How  this  reversal  of  the  conditions 
prevailing  in  other  parts  of  the  world  is  to  be  effected 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  the  Plains  is  not  men- 
tioned ;  it  is  simply  stated  as  a  fact,  that  "  a  fountain 
may  produce  water  sufficient  to  irrigate  50,000  acres 
of  land,  which  may  be  utilized  within  a  distance  of 
fifty  miles,  and  the  water,  spread  out  over  the  ground 
and  percolating  through  the  soil  back  into  the  under- 
flow, be  ready  for  use  upon  the  next  fifty-mile  stretch 
below."  It  is  admitted,  however,  that  there  will  be 
losses  of  the  water  "  by  evaporation,  saturation,  and 
diversion,  but  these  have  their  compensations."  Of 
what  nature  these  compensations  are,  it  is  said,  "  there 
is  not  now  time  to  discuss."  All  the  practical  infor- 
mation given  in  regard  to  these  points  is  comprised 
in  the  statement  that  the  elements  entering  into  the 
development  and  constant  renewal  of  such  water  sup- 
plies are  :  "  the  recovery  of  phreatic  waters,  storage, 
the  growth  of  trees  and  other  vegetation,  irrigation, 
and  the  gradual  saturation  of  the  soil." 


BY  VARIOUS  METHODS.  231 

Furthermore,  this  recovery  of  the  sub-waters,  accom- 
plished "  by  gravity  through  the  '  fountain  method/  by 
sunk  dams,  by  sub-canals,  and  by  driving  or  laying 
perforated  or  other  permeable  pipes  and  conduits ;  by 
pumping  and  hoisting  by  steam,  wind,  and  water  power, 
the  last  eventually  employing  electricity  as  an  impor- 
tant auxiliary "  will  have  certain  results  which  are 
enumerated,  and  among  which  the  following  may  be 
considered  as  being  the  most  surprising :  "  Very  great 
power  for  use  in  manufacturing,  etc.,  may  be  devel- 
oped " ;  the  now  bare  and  arid  plains  may  be  made  to 
enter  largely  into  the  growth  of  timber  and  the  produc- 
tion of  fish ;  and,  finally,  "  the  Great  Plains  region  de- 
veloped and  utilized  to  the  fullest  extent  may  become  in 
an  economic  sense,  as  well  as  geographically,  the  centre 
and  heart  of  the  nation,  such  breadth  and  depth  of 
fertile  soil  supplied  with  water  for  irrigation  being  a 
steadfast  safeguard  against  famine ;  and  it  will  be,  or 
can  be  made,  a  region  impenetrable  by  any  foreign  foe 
and  capable  of  sustaining  the  entire  nation  throughout 
the  duration  of  any  probable  foreign  war."1 

A  publication  of  the  United  States  census  of  1890, 
bearing  the  date  of  September  9,  1892,  and  edited  by 
F.  H.  Newell,  has  come  to  hand  since  the  preceding 
pages  were  written,  and,  although  it  gives  statistics 
for  no  later  period  than  that  embraced  within  the  year 
ending  May  31,  1890,  it  really  contains  the  latest 
accessible  general  information  in  regard  to  the  actual 
results  of  irrigation  for  the  country  at  large,  —  that 
is  for  that  part  of  the  country  in  which  irrigation  is 

1  See  farther  on  (pp.  242-244)  for  the  latest  opinions  of  the  officials  of 
the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  in  regard  to  the  importance  of  the  underflow. 


232 


LATEST  STATISTICS  OF  IRRIGATION. 


employed  in  agriculture  to  an  important  extent,  and 
considered  a  matter  of  State  or  national  importance.1 

In  this  Bulletin  it  is  said  that  there  were  irrigated  in 
the  Census  Year  ending  May  31,  1890,  within  the  arid 
and  subhumid  region  on  the  western  half  of  the  United 
States  3,631,381  acres,  or  5,674.03  square  miles,  which 
is  approximately  four  tenths  of  one  per  cent  of  the 
total  land  area  west  of  the  100th  meridian.  Of  this  irri- 
gated area  61.31  per  cent  was  devoted  to  the  raising 
of  various  kinds  of  forage.  The  following  table  gives 
the  more  important  items  of  the  irrigation  business 
for  each  State  and  Territory  in  which  this  was  carried 
on,  as  also  for  the  States  "  lying  largely  within  the 
subhumid  region  to  the  east,"  the  statistics  for  these 
being  grouped  under  the  designation  of  "  subhumid 


region. 


States  and  Territories. 

Area  irrigated. 

Percentage  Character  of 
Irrigated  Crops. 

Acres. 

Per  cent  of 
entire  Laud 
Surface. 

Forage. 

Cereals. 

Arizona      .... 
California  .... 
Colorado    .... 
Idaho     

65,821 
1,004,233 
890,735 
217,005 
350,582 
224,403 
91,745 
177,944 
263,473 
48,799 
229,676 
66,965 

0.09 
1.01 
1.34 
0.40 
0.38 
0.32 
012 
0.39 
0.50 
0.23 
0.37 

65.82 
47.22 
70.25 
70.97 
78.01 
93.32 
36.78 
69.99 
56.35 
57.99 
91.73 

34.18 
52.78 
29.75 
29.03 
21.39 
6.68 
63.22 
30.01 
43.65 
42.01 
8.27 

Montana    .... 
Nevada      .    .    . 

New  Mexico  .    .    . 

Utah      .         .     . 

Washington   .     .    . 
Wyoming  .... 
Subhumid  Region  . 

1  This  is  called  an  "  Extra  Census  Bulletin,  No.  23,"  and,  although  bear- 
ing the  date  of  September  9,  1892,  it  appears  not  to  have  been  given  to  the 
public  much,  if  any,  before  the  end  of  1893.  The  statistical  information 


GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  IRRIGATION  REPORT.       233 

In  discussing  the  attempts  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment to  throw  light  on  the  irrigation  problem  in  the 
United  States,  it  was  mentioned  in  previous  pages 
that,  with  this  end  in  view,  various  appropriations  had 
been  made  by  Congress,  the  expenditure  of  which  was 
intrusted  to  the  Geological  Survey.1  Three  reports  of 
this  department  of  the  Irrigation  Survey  are  there 
enumerated,  and  a  synopsis  given  of  their  contents, 
and  from  this  an  idea  can  be  had  of  what  had  been  ac- 
complished in  this  work  up  to  that  time.  Since  those 
pages  were  in  type,  a  fourth  report  of  this  survey  has 
been  received,  and  it  will  be  next  in  order  to  state  what 
additions  have  been  made  in  this  volume  to  that  which 
had  been  previously  published,2  this  being,  so  far  as 
known  to  the  present  writer,  the  latest  official  publica- 
tion relating  to  the  subject  of  irrigation  in  the  United 
States. 

The  report  here  to  be  examined  consists  of  three 
parts :  the  first  of  these,  by  F.  H.  Newell,  is  entitled 

embodied  in  this  Bulletin  appears  to  be  essentially  the  same  as  that  which 
is  contained  in  the  House  Executive  Document  No.  1,  Part  5,  52d  Congress, 
2d  Session,  1892,  which  also  will  form  a  part  of  the  Thirteenth  Annual 
Report  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  and  having  the  sub-title  "  Water 
Supply  for  Irrigation,"  also  by  Mr.  F.  H.  Newell. 

1  See  ante,  pp.  29-31. 

2  This  fourth  of  the  series  of  Irrigation  Reports  issued  by  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey  is  contained  in  the  "  Report  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  communicated  to  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  at  the  Beginning 
of  the  Second  Session  of  the  Fifty-second  Congress,"  of  which  it  forms 
Volume  IV.  Part  3,  bearing  the  date  of  1892.     Following  the  precedent 
already  set  in  this  matter,  this  report  will,  it  is  supposed,  form  Part  II.  of 
the  Thirteenth  Annual   Report  of  the   U.   S.   Geological   Survey.     The 
volume  of  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  was  obtained  by 
purchase   at   Washington  in   April  of  the  current    year.     The    Twelfth 
Annual  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  was  received  at  the  Museum 
of  Comparative  Zoology  about  the  same  time. 


234       GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  IRRIGATION  REPORT. 

"  Water  Supply  for  Irrigation  " ;  the  second,  by  Herbert 
M.  Wilson,  is  devoted  to  "American  Irrigation  Engi- 
neering," and  to  the  "  Engineering  Results  of  Irriga- 
tion Survey  " ;  the  third,  by  A.  H.  Thompson,  to  the 
"  Construction  of  Topographic  Maps,  and  the  Selec- 
tion and  Survey  of  Reservoir  Sites  in  the  Hydrographic 
Basin  of  the  Arkansas  River,"  and  "  Location  and  Sur- 
vey of  Reservoir  Sites  during  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1892." 

Mr.  Newell  has  already  been  mentioned  as  being  the 
author  of  "  Extra  Census  Bulletin,  No.  23,"  which 
relates  to  Agriculture  and  Irrigation,  and  brief  extracts 
from  the  document  have  been  given.  In  the  present 
report,  some  general  remarks  on  various  subjects  con- 
nected with  irrigation  and  water-supply  form  an  in- 
troduction to  a  more  detailed  description,  from  the 
hydrographic  and  irrigational  point  of  view,  of  the 
basins  of  the  Missouri,  Yellowstone,  and  Platte  rivers. 
At  the  outset  the  same  statement  is  made  which 
appears  in  the  Extra  Census  Bulletin,  namely,  that  the 
area  on  which  crops  were  raised  by  irrigation,  during 
the  year  ending  May  31,  1890,  was  5,674.03  square 
miles,  this  being  approximately  four  tenths  of  one 
per  cent  of  the  total  land  surface  of  the  United  States 
west  of  the  100th  meridian.  "  In  other  words,  for 
every  acre  from  which  crops  were  obtained  by  irriga- 
tion there  were  nearly  250  acres  of  land  most  of  which 
was  not  utilized  in  any  way  except  for  pasturage." 
The  area  of  land  surface  west  of  the  100th  meridian, 
not  including  thirty-six  counties  of  western  Oregon 
and  Washington,  is  given  as  being  1,371,960  square 
miles,  and  this  is  divided  with  reference  to  the  amount 


VEGETATION  OF  THE  ARID  REGION.  235 

of  moisture  received  or  the  water  supply  available,  as 
shown  principally  by  the  character  of  the  vegetation, 
as  follows  :  — 

Square  Miles.  Per  Cent. 

Desert 100,000  7.3 

Pasture 961,960  70.1 

Firewood 180,000  13.1 

Timber 130,000  9.5 

The  term  "  desert  land "  is  defined  by  saying  that 
"  it  is  that  within  which  the  water  supply  is  so  small 
that  the  cattle  cannot  obtain  sufficient  for  drinking  pur- 
poses, and  the  vegetation  is  too  scanty  to  be  of  value 
for  pasturage."  It  hardly  needs  to  be  suggested  that, 
where  water  cannot  be  obtained  even  for  drinking 
purposes,  there  vegetation  must  necessarily  be  scanty ; 
and  that,  however  luxuriant  it  might  be,  it  would  be 
of  no  use.  The  land  designated  as  "  firewood "  is 
mainly  that  fringing  the  streams ;  and  that  classed  as 
"timber"  includes  the  forested  areas  upon  the  high 
mountains.  A  large  part  of  this  "  timber  "  has  been 
burned  over  at  different  times,  so  that  much  of  its 
original  value  has  been  lost ;  while  but  a  very  small 
part  of  it  would  in  its  natural  condition  bear  any  com- 
parison, as  to  value,  with  the  timber  lands  of  the  well 
watered  part  of  the  country,  most  of  it  being  soft 
wood,  and  the  individual  trees  usually  quite  small,  and 
very  rarely  large.  The  arboreal  vegetation  along  the 
streams  is  mostly  wood  of  a  very  inferior  character, 
and  only  scantily  covering  the  soil.1  As  most  of  the 

1  For  a  somewhat  detailed  description  of  the  nature  and  distribution  of 
the  forests  over  the  area  included  between  the  two  heavily  timbered  regions 
of  the  country  —  the  Appalachian  and  the  Pacific  Coast  —  see  the  present 
writer's  "  United  States,"  etc.,  pp.  201-213. 


236       QUANTITY  OF  WATER  AVAILABLE. 

area  coining  under  the  designation  of  "  firewood "  is 
too  low  and  sandy,  and  too  much  exposed  to  be  swept 
by  freshets,  and  as  a  large  part  of  the  timber  land  is 
too  rough  and  rocky  for  cultivation,  it  is  evident  that 
the  irrigated  and  irrigable  lands  are  mainly  included 
within  those  divisions  which  in  their  natural  state  are 
classed  as  "  desert "  and  "  pasture,"  any  sharply  drawn 
distinction  between  these  two  classes  of  land  being 
manifestly  impossible. 

The  proportion  of  the  desert  or  pasture  land  which 
can  be  brought  under  irrigation  in  the  future  is  next 
discussed  by  Mr.  Newell  in  the  report  under  considera- 
tion, and  it  is  remarked  that  "  it  is  obvious  at  the  out- 
set, that  this  proportion  must  be  small,  probably  tinder 
three  per  cent,  but  its  exact  amount  can  be  determined 
only  when  the  available  waters  of  the  region  have  been 
accurately  measured." 

The  method  in  which  Mr.  Newell  endeavors  to  arrive 
at  an  approximate  idea  of  this  amount,  which  by  no 
possibility  could  be  exactly  determined,  is  not  easily 
explained,  and  is  in  absolute  conflict  with  the  views 
which  in  the  preceding  pages  have  been  shown  to  be 
held  by  most  of  the  officials  of  the  Irrigation  Surveys. 
The  greater  part  of  the  available  water  supply  is  said 
by  him  to  come  from  the  high  mountains  with  precipi- 
tous slopes,  this  including  the  greater  part  of  the  areas 
covered  by  timber  and  firewood,  while  from  the  remain- 
ing land,  namely,  the  pasture  and  the  desert,  there  is 
very  little  water  available  for  irrigation,  "  for  although 
there  is  a  large  amount  of  water  falling  on  these  tracts, 
yet  the  conditions  are  such  that  streams  valuable  to 
agriculture  are  seldom  formed,  for  the  greater  part  of 


STANDARD  DUTY  OF   WATER.  237 

the  moisture  sinks  into  the  ground,  and  is  subsequently 
lost  by  evaporation,  or,  when  coming  in  heavy  showers, 
flows  off  in  the  streams  whose  beds  are  nearly  or  quite 
dry  for  the  rest  of  the  year,  and  thus  is  plentiful  only 
at  times  when  there  is  no  need  of  irrigation." 

The  total  area  considered,  in  accordance  with  these 
views,  as  furnishing  water  available  for  irrigation,  is 
said  to  have  been  ascertained  to  be  360,000  square  miles, 
and  on  this  the  average  amount  of  water,  taking  one 
year  with  another,  is  said  to  be  seldom  greater  than 
one  second-foot  per  square  mile.  This  figure  was 
obtained  by  determining  the  average  run-off  of  twenty- 
three  streams,  said  to  be  "  well  distributed  through  the 
mountainous  area  of  the  arid  region,"  and  on  that 
account  "  fairly  representative  of  the  discharge  from 
the  higher  mountains  of  the  West."  This  gives 
360,000  second-feet  as  the  whole  amount  of  water 
available  for  irrigational  purposes  in  the  arid  region, 
and  it  is  said  that  the  area  which  can  be  irrigated 
by  it  "can  be  approximately  ascertained  by  assuming 
a  standard  duty  of  water."  What  may  fairly  be  taken 
as  a  standard  duty  is,  however,  not  stated :  it  is 
simply  suggested  that,  if  one  second-foot  will  irrigate 
one  hundred  acres,  the  total  irrigable  area  will  be 
about  36,000,000  acres,  or  about  ten  times  that  on 
which  crops  were  raised  by  irrigation,  in  the  census 
year,  and  if  the  duty  of  one  second-foot  be  taken  as 
150  acres  "  the  area  irrigable  will  be  54,000,000  acres, 
and  so  on,  according  to  the  duty  of  water  assumed." 
These  computations  do  not  appear  to  throw  any  light 
on  the  main  question  of  how  large  a  portion  of  the 
arid  region  of  the  country  can  really  be  irrigated. 


238          FLUCTUATIONS  OF  RIVERS   AND  LAKES. 

The  matter  is  an  exceedingly  complicated  one,  and  it 
is  doubtful  whether  it  can  ever  be  ascertained  in  any 
other  way  than  by  actual  experiment. 

The  subject  of  the  fluctuation  of  rivers  and  lakes 
comes  up  next  for  discussion,  and  here  again  the 
uncertainties  are  great,  and  it  is  candidly  admitted 
that  "  the  quantity  of  water  flowing  in  a  river  is  the 
resultant  of  so  many  variables,  that  it  is  impossible 
to  predict  with  any  degree  of  certainty  what  will  be 
the  amount  flowing  in  the  stream  during  the  next 
crop  season."  Two  classes  of  fluctuations  in  rivers 
and  lakes  are  briefly  considered  by  Mr.  Newell.  The 
first  is  the  periodic  or  seasonal  oscillation,  which,  in 
the  case  of  a  river,  depends  mainly  on  the  climate,  and 
secondarily  on  the  topography  of  the  region  through 
which  the  river  runs :  in  the  case  of  a  lake,  especially 
if  it  be  one  of  large  size,  these  seasonal  oscillations 

O  ' 

are  in  general  much  less  strongly  marked  than  they 
are  in  rivers,  and  in  very  large  lakes  are  almost  or 
quite  imperceptible.  Hence,  a  comparison  of  the  peri- 
odic oscillations  of  lakes  and  rivers  such  as  that 
furnished  by  Mr.  Newell  is  of  no  value,  since  we  have 
here  results  given  for  lakes  of  closed  basins  as  well 
as  those  having  free  drainage,  and  for  rivers  differing 
from  one  another  as  far  as  possible  in  reference  both 
to  the  climate  and  topography  of  the  region  which 
they  drain.  Thus,  in  the  diagram  furnished,  Great  Salt 
Lake  and  Lake  Champlain,  and  the  Missouri  and  the 
Savannah  rivers,  figure  together. 

Much  more  important  from  the  point  of  view  of 
both  the  engineer  and  the  irrigator,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  climatologist,  are  the  non-periodic  oscillations 


SECULAR  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  239 

both  of  lakes  and  rivers,  but  especially  of  the  former, 
since  these  can  be  much  more  easily  and  satisfactorily 
registered  and  studied  than  those  of  the  latter.  Some 
interesting  facts  selected  from  various  sources,  and 
bearing  on  this  question,  are  brought  together  by 
Mr.  Newell,  but  the  data  at  present  available  do  not 
appear  to  furnish  a  satisfactory  basis  for  any  conclu- 
sions which  would  be  of  value  as  helping  to  solve 
the  irrigational  problem.  A  diagram  showing  the 
discharge  in  second-feet  of  the  Cache  la  Poudre  and 
Arkansas  rivers  for  several  consecutive  years  ending 
in  1891,  and  the  height  of  Great  Salt  Lake  from 
1876  to  1891  and  of  Utah  Lake  from  1884  to  1891, 
is  said  to  indicate  that,  "  taking  the  country  as  a 
whole,  there  was  an  extraordinary  amount  of  precipi- 
tation during  1884."  To  this  is  added  the  statement, 
that  "about  this  time  the  great  increase  in  rainfall 
was  noticed  and  popularly  attributed  to  the  effects  of 
cultivation  and  to  other  causes  under  the  control 
of  man.  That  these  fluctuations  are  widespread,  and 
wholly  remote  from  human  influence  even  in  the 
slightest  degree  hardly  needs  discussion  at  present." 3 

1  The  subject  of  the  extent  and  causes  of  the  secular  changes  in  the 
areas  of  lakes  and  the  volume  of  the  rivers  of  the  globe  is  one  which  has 
excited  much  attention,  and  which  has  been  investigated  more  or  less  thor- 
oughly by  various  climatologists  during  the  past  few  years.  An  elaborate 
discussion  of  the  climatic  fluctuations  (Klimaschwankungen)  which  have 
taken  place  since  the  year  1700  was  published  by  Professor  Eduard 
Bruckner,  of  the  University  of  Bern,  in  1890,  and  a  reference  is  made  to 
this  work  by  Mr.  Newell,  who  does  not,  however,  give  any  of  Professor 
Bruckner's  results,  or  draw  from  them  any  general  conclusions.  The 
present  writer  has  also  devoted  much  time  to  an  investigation  somewhat 
similar  in  character  to  that  of  the  Professor  of  Geography  at  Bern  (see 
ante,  pp.  122,  132,  and  202,  for  the  title  of  a  work  published  by  him  on  this 
subject,  and  references  to  its  contents).  Professor  Bruckner's  conclusions 


240  SUBSURFACE  WATER. 

Again  we  are  told  by  Mr.  Newell,  in  connection  with 
his  discussion  of  this  subject  that  "  the  principal  fact 
taught  by  the  examination  of  the  fluctuations  of  the 
rivers  and  lakes  of  not  only  the  arid  regions,  but  of 
the  United  States  as  a  whole,  is  that  these  are  due  to 
climatic  forces,  not  only  continental,  but  even  world- 
wide in  extent.  .  .  .  These  matters  cannot  be  regu- 
lated or  affected,  except  perhaps  in  a  very  slight 
degree,  by  any  action  on  the  part  of  mankind.  There 
is  an  idea  widely  current  that  the  removal  of  the 
forest  cover  at  the  head  waters  of  a  stream  acts  inju- 
riously in  many  ways  and  causes  greater  fluctuations 
in  the  quantity  discharged,  especially  in  times  of  flood. 
This  is  a  matter,  however,  exceedingly  difficult  to 
prove  on  account  of  this  enormous  variation  in  vol- 
ume which  takes  place  in  every  stream,  whether  in 
a  forested  country  or  not,  the  fluctuation  due  to  cli- 
matic changes  being  enormously  greater  than  that 
which  can  be  attributed  in  any  way  to  the  result  of 
forest  destruction." 

The  subject  of  the  underflow,  so  often  mentioned  in 
the  present  volume,  is  discussed  by  Mr.  Newell  under 
the  heading  of  "  Subsurface  Waters."  The  statistics  of 

may  be  briefly  summed  up  in  his  own  words  (translated  from  the  German) 
as  follows :  "  We  have  enumerated  since  the  year  1020  twenty-five  complete 
oscillations,  and  computed  from  these  a  mean  duration  of  34.8  ±  0.7  years. 
In  the  last  two  centuries  the  years  1700,  1740, 1780,  1815,  1850,  and  1880 
appear  as  centres  of  cold  and  moist  periods,  and  1720, 17GO,  1795,  1830,  and 
1860  as  centres  of  warm  and  dry  periods."  How  little  these  results  apply 
to  the  secular  changes  of  climate  which  have  taken  place  in  this  country  will 
be  made  evident  by  a  study  of  the  curves  of  secular  oscillations,  and  of  the 
other  data  presented  in  the  work  here  cited.  The  present  writer's  inves- 
tigations have  led  him  to  conclusions  very  different  from  those  of  Professor 
Bruckner,  as  may  be  inferred  from  what  has  been  said  in  regard  to  this 
subject  in  the  present  volume. 


THE  UNDERFLOW.  241 

Artesian  wells  given  by  him  in  the  report  here  under 
discussion  are  essentially  the  same  as  those  already  ab- 
stracted from  the  Census  Bulletin  No.  193,  issued  June 
11, 1892.1  Only  on  1.43  per  cent  of  the  total  area  irri- 
gated in  the  United  States  during  the  census  year  was 
the  water  used  obtained  from  Artesian  wells.  To  this 
statement  is  added  the  remark,  that  "  no  statistics  have 
been  obtained  concerning  the  ordinary  wells  from  which 
water  is  pumped  or  drawn  by  various  means,  but  there 
is  found  in  nearly  every  locality  water  saturating  po- 
rous rocks  near  the  surface  in  all  places  except  on 
desert  areas.  On  the  Great  Plains,  for  example,  in 
Western  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  it  is  sometimes  neces- 
sary to  go  to  depths  of  from  100  to  300  feet  or  more 
before  water-bearing  strata  are  reached,  but  throughout 
the  arid  region  as  a  rule  wells  are  successfully  dug  to 
a  less  depth." 2  The  theory  of  an  underflow,  as  upheld 
by  various  officials  whose  opinions  have  been  set  forth 
and  criticised  in  the  preceding  pages  of  the  present 
volume,  meets  with  no  favor  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Newell,  who  remarks  as  follows  in  regard  to  this  mat- 
ter :  "  The  widespread  occurrence  of  water  in  pervious 
layers  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  sometimes  in  such 
quantities  as  to  appear  almost  inexhaustible,  has  given 
rise  to  the  notion  that  it  flows  in  great  channels  very 
much  as  do  the  rivers  of  the  surface,  but  covered  from 
sight  by  rocks  and  soils.  There  are  a  few  instances 
where  underground  watercourses  actually  occur,  but 
these  are  extremely  rare  and  are  extraordinary  in 
their  nature,  being  found  only  in  the  great  limestone 
deposits  or  among  the  lava  flows  of  recently  extinct 

1  See  ante,  p.  91.  2  See  ante,  pp.  117-121,  145-153. 

16 


242  SUBSURFACE   WATER. 

volcanic  regions."  In  the  majority  of  cases  the  sub- 
surface water  is  said  to  be  "  merely  moisture  saturating 
the  rocks,"  but  the  behavior  of  this  water  is  admitted 
to  be  "still  a  matter  of  inquiry,  and  is  not  clearly 
understood." 

That  this  "  subsurface  jwater  "  is  a  matter  of  impor- 
tance over  a  very  extensive  region,  as  furnishing  the 
only  means  of  obtaining  a  more  or  less  permanent  and 
satisfactory  water-supply,  cannot  be  denied.  All  that 
part  of  the  Great  Plains  not  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  a  river  must  remain  dependent  on  water  obtained 
from  wells  sunk  to  the  water-bearing  rock;  but  this 
matter,  in  regard  to  which  so  much  has  been  said  by 
most  of  the  irrigation  officials,  is  passed  over  by  Mr. 
Newell  almost  in  silence.  A  "  leading  question "  in 
regard  to  the  subsurface  waters  is  admitted  to  be :  Are 
they  stationary,  or  do  they  flow  freely  from  place 
to  place  ?  To  this  no  more  definite  answer  is  given 
than  that  "it  is  probable  that  to  a  certain  degree 
both  these  conditions  are  found  in  nature."  In 
short,  it  is  admitted  that  we  are  here  confronted  by 
a  problem  of  which  a  satisfactory  solution  cannot  be 
given,  only  experience  in  each  locality  can  determine 
the  rate  with  which  the  moisture  beneath  the  surface 
will  move  to  take  the  place  of  that  removed  by  the 
stroke  of  the  pump.  This  will  depend  on  the  nature 
of  the  rock  in  the  immediate  vicinity  and  for  some 
distance  away,  and  on  the  extent  and  manner  in 
which  its  homogeneity  is  interrupted  by  bars  of  clay, 
faults  filled  with  that  or  some  other  impervious  mate- 
rial, and  on  a  variety  of  similar  conditions  of  which 
nothing  definite  can  be  known  until  after  an  actual 


THE  FOUNTAIN  METHOD.  243 

trial  has  been  made  by  boring  or  well-sinking.  Further- 
more, there  is  another  all-important  question :  How 
much  of  the  moisture  drawn  from  a  great  depth  be- 
neath the  surface  will  be  replaced  by  water  derived 
from  the  rainfall  of  the  present,  and  how  much  of  it 
is  that  which  has  been  stored  up  in  the  depths  during 
a  former  period  of  more  copious  precipitation  than  that 
which  now  prevails  in  the  arid  and  semi-arid  regions, 
and  will  therefore  not  be  replaced  after  it  has  once 
been  raised  to  the  surface  and  become  exposed  to 
evaporation  ? 1  In  regard  to  this  important  point  Mr. 
Newell  is  silent. 

As  respects  the  "  fountain  method "  of  obtaining 
water,  considered  by  Mr.  Gregory  to  be  of  so  much  im- 
portance, and  of  the  nature  and  application  of  which 
some  details  have  been  furnished  in  the  preceding 
pages,2  Mr.  Newell  is  very  outspoken.  The  follow- 
ing quotation  will  sufficiently  set  forth  his  opinions 
in  reference  both  to  the  underflow  and  the  method 
of  making  it  available  by  sub-canals  or  "  fountains  "  : 
"  The  somewhat  misleading  and  indefinite  term  '  under- 
flow '  has  been  applied  to  these  waters  [the  subsurface 
or  underground  waters],  and  many  persons  awakening 
for  the  first  time  to  a  realization  of  their  -presence 
have  received  exaggerated  impressions,  or  have  mag- 
nified the  importance  of  phenomena  previously  known 
to  engineers  and  geologists.  Extravagant  reports  have 
been  made  as  to  the  results  of  rude  experiments,  and 
many  persons  have  been  induced  to  believe  that  it  was 
practicable  to  irrigate  large  portions  of  the  subhumid 

1  See,  in  regard  to  this  point,  ante,  pp.  120-122. 

2  See  ante,  pp.  227-229. 


244  COST  AND  VALUE   OF  WATER-SUPPLY. 

region  by  means  of  the  ground  waters  conducted  to 
the  surface  of  the  gently  sloping  plains  through  long 
tunnels  or  open  channels.  Acting  on  this  belief, 
thousands  or  even  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
were  expended,  mainly  in  the  years  1890  and  1891, 
in  the  construction  of  such  projects,  principally  along 
or  in  the  valleys  of  the  Platte  and  Arkansas  rivers. 
So  far  as  can  be  ascertained  by  examination  and 
measurement,  none  of  these  projects  can  be  said  to  be 
successful,  although  in  a  number  of  cases  small  quan- 
tities of  water  are  obtained  from  the  long  deep  channels 
which  penetrate  the  pervious  beds  of  sand  and  gravel. 
.  .  .  The  projectors  of  these  irrigating  schemes  often 
failed  to  appreciate  not  only  the  fact  that  ground 
waters  must  in  their  very  nature  move  slowly,  but 
also  that  even  in  comparatively  humid  countries  large 
volumes  of  water  are  necessary  to  conduct  irrigation 
on  an  extended  scale." 

The  following  figures  are  given  by  Mr.  Newell,  under 
the  head  of  "  Cost  and  Value  of  Water  Supply.''  The 
average  first  cost  of  water  for  irrigation  throughout 
Western  United  States  is  at  the  rate  of  $8.15  per  acre, 
while  its  value,  wherever  the  rights  can  be  transferred 
without  the  land,  is  $26.  Applying  these  figures  to 
the  total  acreage,  as  ascertained  by  the  last  census,  the 
total  cost  of  irrigating  the  lands  from  which  crops  were 
obtained  in  1889  was  $29,611,000,  and  the  total  value 
of  the  water  rights  $94,412,000,  the  increase  of  value 
being  $64,801,000,  or  218.84  per  cent  of  the  invest- 
ment. The  average  annual  expense  of  maintaining 
the  water  supply  was  $1.07  per  acre,  or  an  aggregate 
of  $3,794,000,  this  being  the  amount  expended  in 


COST  AND  VALUE  OF   WATER-SUPPLY.  245 

keeping  the  canals  and  ditches  in  repair  and  free  from 
sediment.  The  estimated  first  cost  of  lands  from  which 
crops  were  obtained  in  1889  was  $77,490,000,  and  their 
present  value,  including  improvements,  $296,850,000, 
showing  an  increased  value  of  $219,360,000,  or  233.08 
per  cent  of  the  investment  in  the  land,  not  taking  into 
consideration  the  water.  The  average  value  of  the  crops 
raised  was  $14.80  per  acre,  or  a  total  of  $53,057,000. 
These  figures  have 'been  introduced  to  exhibit  the  cost 
and  value  of  irrigation  in  the  arid  regions.  The  value 
of  the  unutilized  water  supply  can  scarcely  be  estimated 
until  more  accurate  information  is  obtained  concerning 
the  total  amount  of  water  and  the  acreage  that  it  can 
be  made  to  cover.  By  making  certain  assumptions, 
however,  a  rough  estimate  can  be  arrived  at. 

Taking  the  average  first  cost  of  water  at  $8.15  per 
acre,  and  its  present  value  at  $26  per  acre,  the  differ- 
ence, $17.85,  may  be  assumed  as  the  value  of  the  water 
as  it  flows  in  the  stream.  If  one  cubic  foot  per  second 
will  water  one  hundred  acres,  then  the  value  of  one 
second-foot  is  $1,785.  As  previously  stated,1  the  total 
quantity  of  water  probably  available  is  360,000  second- 
feet,  and  the  total  value  of  this  water  would  thus  be 
$642,000,000.  These  figures,  as  Mr.  Newell  remarks, 
"  have  no  claim  to  accuracy,  but  merely  indicate  that, 
calculated  on  the  most  conservative  basis,  the  water 
supply  of  the  arid  country  must  be  ranked  among  the 
most  important  of  its  undeveloped  mineral  resources." 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out,  in  addition  to  what 
has  been  already  said  on  this  subject,  how  many  sources 
of  error  there  are  in  these  computations.  One  of  the 

1  See  ante,  p.  237. 


246  DISCHARGE  OF  PRINCIPAL  STREAMS. 

most  important  ones  is  this :  that  the  data  employed 
must  have  been  almost  exclusively  obtained  from  the 
statements  of  parties  interested  to  magnify  the  success 
of  their  operations,  and  especially  to  place  the  value 
of  both  irrigated  land  and  crops  at  as  high  a  figure  as 
possible.  The  estimate  which  Mr.  Newell  makes  of 
the  total  quantity  of  water  probably  available  for  irri- 
gation seems  to  the  present  writer  not  to  have  any 
really  sound  basis  of  fact  on  which  to  rest.  Indeed,  the 
only  entirely  reliable  statistics  which  can  ever  be  ob- 
tained which  will  —  to  a  certain  extent  at  least  — 
throw  light  on  the  real  success  of  the  irrigational  un- 
dertakings in  the  arid  and  semi-arid  regions  will  be 
their  actual  population  and  products  as  shown  by 
the  various  censuses  of  the  United  States,  —  or  of  the 
individual  States,  if  such  should  ever  be  made. 

The  remainder  of  Mr.  Newell's  report  is  devoted  to 
a  discussion  of  the  principal  drainage  basins  of  the 
insufficently  watered  portions  of  the  country.  The 
Missouri,  Yellowstone,  and  Platte  River  basins  are 
taken  up  in  order,  and  various  items  of  information 
concerning  them  are  given,  especially  such  as  bear 
more  particularly  on  the  irrigation  business.  The 
material  here  gathered  together  forms  an  important 
beginning  of  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  hy- 
drography of  the  Cordilleran  region. 

This  report  ends  with  a  tabular  statement  of  ,the 
mean  monthly  and  annual  discharge  of  the  principal 
streams  gauged  by  the  Irrigation  Survey.  The  most 
striking  feature  of  this  table  is  the  extraordinary  dif- 
ference in  the  case  of  almost  all  the  rivers  measured 
between  their  maximum  and  minimum  daily  discharge. 


AMERICAN  IRRIGATION  ENGINEERING.  247 

Tims,  for  the  Rio  Grande  at  El  Paso  the  maximum 
daily  discharge  for  the  year  ending  December,  1891, 
was  16,620 ;  for  1892  it  was  10,050  second-feet ;  the 
minimum  daily  discharge  for  both  these  years  was  0. 
For  Salt  River  the  maximum  for  the  year  ending 
December,  1890,  was  143,288  ;  the  minimum  for  the 
same  time  was  397  second-feet.  The  difficulties  which 
such  conditions  present  to  the  hydraulic  engineer  need 
not  be  enlarged  on. 

The  second  division  of  the  report  here  under  discus- 
sion was  furnished  by  Mr.  H.  M.  Wilson,  and  consists 
of  two  parts.  The  first  of  these  is  a  technical  discus- 
sion of  the  methods  of  American  irrigation  engineer- 
ing, and  is  illustrated  by  a  large  number  of  plates, 
showing,  more  or  less  fully,  various  engineering  con- 
structions existing  in  the  Cordilleran  States.  Of  these 
works,  Mr.  Wilson  says  :  "  There  are  under  construc- 
tion to-day,  or  already  completed,  a  number  of  great 
irrigation  systems  in  the  West  which,  while  costing 
much  less  than  those  of  equal  magnitude  in  Europe 
or  in  India,  are  the  equals  of  these  in  the  quality  and 
excellence  of  their  workmanship  and  design.  These 
works  embody  all  the  peculiar  characteristics  which 
distinguish  American  works  from  those  of  Europeans." 
The  literature  of  irrigation  from  the  general  legisla- 
tive and  economic  side  is  said  to  have  become  volumi- 
nous within  the  last  few  years,  but  "  nothing  worthy 
of  note  has  as  yet  been  written  descriptive  of  the 
engineering  features  of  our  works.  It  is  to  fill  this 
want  that  this  report  has  been  prepared." 

In  the  introduction  to  his  report  Mr.  Wilson  touches 
briefly  on  various  matters  connected  with  the  subject 


248  ARTESIAN  WELLS   AND  UNDERFLOW. 

of  irrigation.  It  is  said,  he  remarks,  to  be  now  gen- 
erally agreed  that  the  recent  experiments  to  produce 
rain  artificially  will  not  result  in  any  benefit  to  the 
arid  regions.  Artesian  wells  for  irrigation  are  disposed 
of  in  a  few  words  :  "  Much  useful  information  bearing 
upon  the  extent  and  distribution  of  the  various  Artesian 
belts  has  been  written,  and  numerous  wells  have  been 
sunk  as  a  consequence,  but  the  discharge  and  value  of 
these  is  relatively  insignificant.  It  is  doubtful  if  a 
hundred  thousand  acres  over  and  above  the  area 
already  irrigated  by  Artesian  wells  will  be  supplied 
from  this  source  for  many  years  to  come.  The  average 
well  is  capable  of  irrigating  but  a  comparatively  small 
acreage,  and  until  water  becomes  more  scarce  than  it  is 
at  present,  their  chief  value  will  be  for  domestic  pur- 
poses and  for  watering  cattle." 

The  subject  of  the  underflow  is  handled  with  equal 
brevity  by  Mr.  Wilson,  who  defines  it  as  being  "  the 
seepage  or  ground  water  which  is  at  a  short  depth 
beneath  the  surface,  and  which  is  tapped  by  the 
common  well.  It  is  claimed  that  the  volume  of  this 
underflow  water,  especially  on  the  great  plains  sloping 
eastward  from  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  such  as  to 
render  irrigable  in  the  near  future  vast  tracts  of  the 
region.  But  it  has  been  discovered  by  experiment  and 
investigation  that  the  discharge  from  such  sources  is 
extremely  limited."  Of  the  "  fountain  method  "  it,  is 
said,  "  Tunnels  and  trenches  of  sufficient  depth  may 
be  sunk  into  the  ground  and  run  along  it  for  great  dis- 
tances to  intercept  this  water  of  percolation,  though  the 
volume  obtained  by  them  is  very  limited,  and  their 
multiplication  impossible,  as  each  work  of  this  kind 


UTILIZATION  OF  THE   GREAT  RIVERS.  249 

materially  affects  the  output  of  any  similar  work  which 
may  lie  below  it."  Pumping  by  means  of  windmills  or 
steam  is  looked  upon  with  more  favor  by  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  it  is  admitted  that  this  method  will  ultimately  be 
largely  resorted  to,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  areas  thus 
irrigated  "  will  be  enormously  increased  as  the  country 
becomes  more  settled.  There  are  cases,  however,  in 
which  ground  water  is  a  matter  of  considerable  im- 
portance, and  this  statement  is  said  to  be  especially 
true  in  regard  to  the  dry  beds  of  certain  streams  in 
California  and  Colorado,  under  which  tunnels  have  been 
run,  or  dams  resting  on  impervious  foundations  built 
across  their  channels,  by  which  means  subterranean 
reservoirs  have  been  created,  supplying  water  enough 
for  purposes  of  irrigation.  Similar  works  are  now 
being  constructed  in  a  few  of  the  gulches  on  the  eastern 
slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  most  notable  of 
which  is  for  the  water  supply  of  the  city  of  Denver." 

The  source  from  which  water  is  to  be  obtained  in 
sufficient  quantity  for  irrigation,  in  the  opinion  of  Mr. 
Wilson,  is  the  utilization  of  the  great  rivers,  such  as 
the  Columbia,  Sacramento,  Colorado,  and  Rio  Grande. 
The  smaller  streams  are  now  almost  all  utilized,  and  on 
many  of  those  of  the  larger,  but  not  of  the  largest  size, 
irrigation  works  are  either  being  planned  or. are  in 
actual  process  of  construction.  The  time  will  soon 
arrive,  he  thinks,  when  the  waters  of  the  great  rivers 
will  be  diverted,  and  when  that  is  attempted  "  the  en- 
gineering problems  which  their  utilization  will  raise 
will  far  surpass  in  magnitude  anything  of  the  kind  yet 
undertaken  in  America."  Moreover,  much  of  the  water 
collected  in  the  smaller  streams  in  the  mountains  is  lost 


250  DUTY  OF  WATER. 

by  seepage  and  evaporation  shortly  after  it  reaches  the 
plains,  while  the  greater  portion  of  that  which  flows 
throughout  the  year  is  not  utilized  during  the  long 
period  from  August  to  April  when  irrigation  is  not 
practised.  But  this  is  the  time  of  the  year  when  the 
rivers  carry  the  largest  volume  of  water,  which  can 
only  be  saved  by  the  construction  of  extensive  storage 
reservoirs.  Such  works,  it  is  said,  "will  add  enor- 
mously to  the  volume  of  water  available  for  irrigation." 
It  is  thought  also  that  the  duty  of  the  water,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  area  which  a  given  volume  of  water 
will  irrigate,  will  be  constantly  increased  as  the  proper 
methods  of  handling  it  become  better  understood,  and 
as  the  dry  earth  becomes  saturated  by  successive  seasons 
of  irrigation.  In  this  way  Mr.  Wilson  conceives  that 
the  value  of  the  present  available  sources  of  supply 
"  may  become  nearly  doubled,  and  the  area  irrigable 
from  these  sources  be  correspondingly  increased. "  No 
proofs  of  the  correctness  of  this  statement  are  offered, 
but  it  appears  to  be  of  the  same  character  as  that  of 
various  other  generalizations  of  the  officials  of  the 
Irrigation  Survey.  It  does  not  seem  as  yet  to  have 
been  discovered,  in  other  countries  where  irrigation  is 
practised,  that  with  the  more  thorough  cultivation 
of  the  soil,  there  arises  less  need  of  water,  although 
this  may  in  some  cases  be  the  result  of  the  intro- 
duction of  more  expensive  irrigational  methods.1 

1  Further  on  in  his  report,  under  the  heading  "  Duty  of  Water,"  Mr. 
Wilson  discusses  this  subject  more  at  length.  He  admits  that  "  the  duty 
of  water  as  at  present  accepted  in  the  various  portions  of  the  West  is  a 
matter  of  extreme  variability  and  doubt,"  but  he  thinks  that  during  the  last 
ten  years  it  has  nearly  doubled  in  Colorado,  and  more  than  quadrupled  in 
portions  of  California.  The  duty  of  water  flowing  from  wells  in  Utah, 
according  to  Mr.  Newell,  as  reported  in  the  Census  Bulletin,  is  80.3  acres 


IRRIGATION  IN  INDIA.  251 

The  subject  of  irrigation  in  India  is  briefly  touched 
upon  by  Mr.  Wilson,  and,  while  admitting  that  there 
are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  deciding  what  can  be  suc- 
cessfully undertaken  in  the  United  States  by  reference 
to-  experience  gathered  in  another  country  of  which 
the  prevailing  conditions  are  so  different,  yet  on  the 
whole  he  makes  light  of  these  difficulties.1 

The  striking  contrast  between  the  density  of  the 
population  of  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States  and 
that  of  the  irrigated  districts  of  India  is  recognized, 
and  it  is  said  that,  "  in  the  central  Western  States,  it 
is  not  the  feasibility  of  a  project  from  a  theoretically 
financial  point  of  view  that  stands  in  the  way  of  its 
construction ;  it  is  the  lack  of  people  to  inhabit  and 
cultivate  the  lands  served  by  the  project,  for  this  forces 
a  large  proportion  of  the  water  furnished  to  remain 
uncalled  for.  The  great  problem  to  be  confronted  by 
most  irrigation  projectors  at  present  is  immigration, 
not  irrigation.  If  but  a  few  good  projects  were  started 
in  the  entire  West,  sufficient  settlers  could  probably  be 
found  to  make  these  interest-paying,  but  as  there  are 
many  projects  on  foot,  they  divide  up  the  number  of 

per  second-foot ;  but  Mr.  Wilson,  immediately  after  citing  this  statement, 
adds,  "  There  is  little  doubt,  however,  that  the  duty  of  water  in  Utah  aver- 
ages about  one  hundred  acres."  Under  special  conditions  the  duty  of  water 
may  be  made  very  high,  as  in  some  localities  in  California,  where  it  is  taken 
to  the  land  in  wooden  flumes  and  allowed  to  run  over  it  from  holes  in  their 
sides,  or  where  in  some  orchards  each  tree  is  supplied  from  a  separate 
outlet  pipe.  In  this  manner  a  duty  as  high  as  1,000  acres  has  been  realized. 
Professor  Carpenter,  of  the  State  Agricultural  College  of  Colorado,  on  the 
other  hand,  says  fifty-five  acres  is  the  duty  ordinarily  taken  in  that  State, 
and  is  "  the  safer  guide." 

1  See  ante,  pp.  34-46,  where  this  matter  is  discussed,  and  facts  pre- 
sented showing  how  entirely  different  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the  two 
countries  are. 


252  IRRIGATION  IN  INDIA. 

settlers  to  such  an  extent  that  many  must  prove  finan- 
cial failures  for  many  years  to  come,  and  until  valuable 
lands  become  more  scarce  and  settlement  more  dense." 
Another  most  important  matter,  namely,  the  dif- 
ference in  the  relations  of  the  government  to  the 
people,  the  land,  and  the  irrigation  enterprises  in  the 
two  countries,  is  not  stated  by  Mr.  Wilson  in  a  suffi- 
ciently explicit  manner.  It  is  true  that  he  admits  that 
"  in  India  all  land  and  all  water  belong  to  the  gov- 
ernment, and  the  irrigation  works  are  designed,  con- 
structed, maintained  and  operated  by  the  government," 
and  that,  in  consequence  of  this,  "  the  legal  questions 
involved  are  comparatively  simple."  Hence  "  the 
question  of  profit  is  not  always  paramount,  and,  while 
the  direct  money  return  is  often  small,  the  indirect 
return  to  the  government  is  always  large,  in  enhanced 
revenues  from  the  rental  of  the  land,  in  immunity  from 
famine,  and  the  consequent  heavy  drain  on  the  treasury 
for  relief  and  charity,  and  in  the  general  benefit  to  the 
people  resulting  from  increased  government  resources 
and  exports."  Then  again,  in  the  United  States,  as 
the  lands  are  all  private  property,  and  the  water  the 
property  of  the  public  until  appropriated,  the  con- 
structors do  not  benefit  by  the  enhanced  value  of  the 
land  consequent  on  irrigation  unless  they  purchase  and 
own  it.  This  matter  of  the  ownership  of  the  water 
sought  to  be  appropriated  by  an  irrigation  company  is 
admitted  to  have  given  rise  "  to  some  of  the  most 
troublesome  and  expensive  legal  complications  with 
which  the  Western  people  have  had  to  deal."  In  gen- 
eral, to  be  successful  in  this  country  in  an  irrigation 
enterprise,  the  managers  must  begin  by  purchasing  the 


IRRIGATION  IN  INDIA.  253 

land,  then  construct  the  works  and  provide  that  land 
with  water,  and  finally  sell,  in  greater  or  less  quanti- 
ties, as  occasion  offers,  the  tracts  to  which  they  by  their 
operations  have  given  an  enhanced  value.  If  such  sales 
are  made  to  intending  settlers,  as  a  rule  the  land  will 
have  to  be  sold  on  mortgage,  with  often  a  necessarily 
great  delay  in  the  final  receipt  of  the  money. 

How  different  in  this  respect  the  whole  condition 
of  things  in  India  !  There  the  government  has  the 
power  to  plan  and  to  carry  out  any  irrigational  enter- 
prise it  may  deem  to  be  for  the  best  interests  of  the 
region  to  be  more  especially  benefited,  while  not  dis- 
regarding the  welfare  of  the  country  as  a  whole. 
When  finished,  the  work  will  be  properly  taken  care 
of  and  kept  in  repair,  and  the  water  equitably  dis- 
tributed, so  far  as  it  is  in  the  power  of  disinterested 
and  skilful  engineers  to  bring  this  about.  The  interest 
on  the  investment,  or  such  part  of  it  as  the  government 
may  see  fit  to  provide  for  in  this  way,  will  be  paid  in 
the  form  of  an  increased  rental  of  the  land  irrigated, 
and  this  charge  cannot  be  evaded.  The  country  is 
densely  inhabited,  and  the  people  cannot  migrate  from 
one  district  to  another  with  the  hope  of  bettering 
their  condition,  as  is  so  commonly  done  in  the  United 
States. 

But  besides  the  difference  between  India  and  the 
Cordilleran  States  in  the  density  of  the  population,  the 
climatic  conditions,  and  the  relations  of  the  govern- 
ment to  irrigational  enterprises,  there  is  another  im- 
portant matter  which  must  not  be  left  out  of  account 
in  comparing  the  two  countries.  This  is  the  formation 
of  an  alkaline  deposit,  or  "  reh "  as  it  is  called  in 


254  IRRIGATION   IN  INDIA. 

India,1  on  and  within  the  soil  as  a  result  of  long- 
continued  irrigation.  In  regard  to  this  much  debated 
subject,  Mr.  Wilson  makes  the  following  remarks : 
"  There  is  no  doubt  that  irrigation,  if  practiced  igno- 
rantly  and  carelessly,  may  result  in  the  production 
of  a  film  of  alkaline  salts  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  though  it  is  equally  certain  not  only  that 
the  intelligent  practice  of  irrigation  need  not  be 
accompanied  by  these  results,  but  that  lands  which 
were  originally  alkaline  may  be  made  arable.  With 
an  increased  knowledge  of  the  necessity  of  natural  or 
artificial  drainage  as  an  adjunct  to  any  well-planned 
irrigation  project,  and  a  better  understanding  of  the 
proper  method  of  locating  and  constructing  canals  so 
as  to  produce  a  minimum  rise  of  the  subsurface  water 
level,  the  production  of  alkali  may  be  reduced  to  a 
minimum  or  wholly  stopped." 

A  comparison  of  this  statement  with  what  has  been 
said  in  previous  pages  of  the  present  volume,  in  which 
the  experience  of  the  irrigation  engineers  of  India  is 
cited  in  reference  to  the  alarming  condition  of  things 
in  that  country,  will  show  at  once  how  incorrect  and 
imperfect  Mr.  Wilson's  treatment  of  the  "  reh  "  question 
is.  It  is  not  true  that  any  method  has  as  yet  been 
discovered  by  which  "  the  production  of  alkali  may  be 
reduced  to  a  minimum  or  wholly  stopped."  It  has  not 
yet  been  proved  possible  to  continue  irrigation  for  a 
great  length  of  time  without  filling  the  soil  with  alka- 
line or  earthy  salts  to  such  an  extent  as  eventually  to 
render  it  unfit  for  cultivation,  unless  it  be  in  certain 
highly  favored  regions.  Where  the  average  precipi- 

1  See  ante,  pp.  39-46. 


THE  REH   QUESTION.  255 

tation  is  large,  and  there  are  occasional  seasons  of 
very  heavy  and  long-continued  rains,  there  the  excess 
of  alkali  is  washed  out  of  the  soil,  at  least  to  a  consid- 
erable extent ;  and  here  it  is  that  the  "  remedying  of 
defective  water  circulation "  may  be  of  importance.1 
Under  such  climatic  conditions,  if  every  facility  is 
offered  for  the  cleansing  of  the  soil  by  the  passage 
through  it  of  the  superfluous  water,  carrying  with  it 
the  alkaline  particles  with  which  the  soil  is  saturated, 
the  evil  will  be  entirely  overcome,  or  at  least  greatly 
lessened.  This  seems  to  be  the  condition  of  things  over 
a  considerable  portion  of  irrigated  India.  Where,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  average  precipitation  is  very  small, 
and  seasons  of  over-abundant  rainfall  are  either  very 
few  or  even  entirely  wanting,  then  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  the  accumulation  of  alkali  in  an  irrigated  soil  can 
be  prevented  by  any  kind  of  artificial  drainage.  Here, 
however,  comes  in  another  question.  If  perfectly  pure 
water  were  used  in  irrigating,  there  would  be  no  alka- 
line or  other  matter  left  from  its  evaporation,  and  the 
nearer  the  approach  to  absolute  purity  in  the  water 
the  longer  the  time  would  be  delayed  before  the  evil 
effects  of  over-irrigation  began  to  be  felt.  That  irriga- 
tion has  been  practiced  along  the  borders  of  the  Nile 
for  an  indefinite  length  of  time  without  injurious 
results  would  seem  to  be  due  —  in  large  part,  at  least 
—  to  the  extraordinary  purity  of  the  water  used,  which, 
even  as  low  down  as  Cairo,  contains  only  about  five  or 
six  grains  of  foreign  matter  to  the  gallon.  The  bene- 
ficial effect  of  the  water  covering  the  low  lands  of  the 
Nile  Valley,  as  a  consequence  of  the  annual  rise  of  the 

i  See  ante,  p.  45. 


256  THE  REH   QUESTION. 

river,  is  due  in  part  to  the  deposit  of  sediment  which  is 
formed.  This,  coming  in  large  part  from  the  decompo- 
sition and  erosion  of  granitic  rocks,  acts  as  a  fertilizer, 
and  neutralizes  —  to  a  certain  extent,  at  least  —  any 
injurious  effect  which  might  otherwise  result  from 
long-continued  irrigation. 

When,  therefore,  Mr.  Wilson  says  that  "  neglect  and 
ignorance  of  the  principles  governing  the  production  of 
alkali  have  been  most  serious,  and  in  a  few  portions 
of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  in  California,  and  in  India, 
it  has  cost  millions  of  dollars  in  the  loss  of  lands  and  in 
the  diminished  demand  for  water,"  he  evidently  mis- 
understands the  nature  of  the  problem,  representing  it 
as  one  easily  solved,  which  is  by  no  means  the  case,  as 
will  become  evident  from  the  consideration  of  what  has 
been  attempted  to  be  done  in  India,  and  of  how  little 
has  been  accomplished  toward  diminishing  the  evil  of 
the  "  reh." 

Mr.  Wilson  himself  recognizes  the  fact  that  "  there 
are  some  classes  of  water  which  it  is  not  advisable  to 
use  for  purposes  of  irrigation."  Yet  he  seems  to  con- 
sider this  condition  of  things  as  exceptional,  and  as 
being  one  which  can  be  easily  remedied.  This  is  far 
from  being  true,  and  some  of  the  methods  proposed 
by  him  would  aggravate  the  difficulty  rather  than 
diminish  it. 

From  what  has  been  stated  in  the  preceding  pages,  it 
will  be  evident  that  we  are  as  yet  much  in  the  dark  as 
regards  the  composition  of  the  water  obtained  from  the 
various  wells  and  rivers  of  the  Cordilleran  region,  which 
are  already  to  some  extent  employed  for  irrigation,  and 
of  which  it  is  proposed  and  expected  that  a  far  larger 


EARLY  IRRIGATION  IN  ARIZONA.  257 

use  will  be  made  in  the  future.  That  much  of  this 
water  is  of  a  quality  such  that  it  cannot  be  expected  to 
benefit  the  soil  to  which  it  is  applied,  seems  already 
to  have  been  clearly  demonstrated.  That  animals  can 
sustain  life  on  an  exceedingly  impure  water,  and  that 
some  crops  can  be  raised  where  the  soil  is  irrigated 
with  a  strong  solution  of  various  mineral  salts,  is  a  well 
known  fact,  as  witness  the  thriving  of  the  date-palms 
in  the  water  procured  by  means  of  the  Artesian  borings 
in  the  Sahara,  as  well  as  the  willingness  of  the  camel  to 
drink  it.  But  to  what  extent  very  impure  water  can 
be  used  for  irrigation  in  general  agriculture,  or  how 
long  animals  will  thrive  under  conditions  which  seem 
so  abnormal  to  those  who  are  accustomed  to  see  stock 
watered  with  a  fluid  holding  in  solution  not  more  than 
ten  or  twenty  grains  of  solid  matter  to  the  gallon, 
remains  as  yet  to  be  ascertained  by  actual  experiment.1 
Under  the  head  of  "  History  and  Legislation,"  Mr. 
Wilson  gives  a  brief  historical  sketch  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  irrigation  into  this  country.  Several  valleys  in 
Arizona  are  said  to  show  unmistakable  signs  of  former 
cultivation.  "  In  nearly  every  portion  of  the  Salt  and 
Gila  river  valleys  the  close  observer  will  find  traces  of 
early  habitation  and  of  systems  of  irrigation,  by  means 

1  The  subject  of  the  composition  of  the  water  obtained  from  the  various 
wells,  springs,  rivers,  and  lakes  of  the  western  part  of  this  country  is  one 
of  great  scientific  as  well  as  practical  importance.  In  the  reports  of  the 
officials  of  the  Irrigation  Survey  this  matter  seems  to  have  been  by  far  too 
much  neglected.  From  some  of  the  State  Geological  Reports  more  satis- 
factory information  may  be  obtained,  as  has  been  seen  in  the  preceding 
pages.  Some  of  the  analyses  which  these  reports  contain,  however,  are 
manifestly  unreliable,  and  the  whole  body  of  information  on  this  subject  is 
of  too  uncertain  a  character  to  make  it  worth  while  to  attempt  to  enter  into 
any  generalization  with  regard  to  the  quality  of  the  water  furnished  under 
different  geological  conditions  throughout  the  Cordilleran  region. 

17 


258  EARLY  IRRIGATION   IN  CALIFORNIA. 

of  which  the  broad  plains  and  mesas  were  brought  to 
the  highest  state  of  productiveness."  This  develop- 
ment of  the  agricultural  resources  of  a  region  now 
so  dry  and  thinly  inhabited  1  dates  back  to  a  period 
long  antecedent  to  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards  in 
Mexico  ;  but  when  these  irrigation  works  were  con- 
structed is  entirely  a  matter  of  conjecture.  Mr.  Wilson 
seems  to  think  that  it  was  solely  owing  to  the  skill 
with  which  this  region  was  irrigated  and  cultivated  by 
the  early  inhabitants  that  its  former  productiveness 
was  brought  about,  the  natural  inference  being  that 
this  condition  of  things  may  be  restored  by  a  return  to 
the  ancient  practices,  improved,  it  may  be,  in  certain  re- 
spects by  modern  methods.  This  is  doubtful,  for  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  the  climate  of  this  part  of 
the  country  has  been  changed  for  the  worse  within  a 
not  very  remote  period.  The  topographical  features  of 
the  Colorado  River  and  its  tributaries  prove  unmistak- 
ably that  these  streams  once  flowed  with  much  larger 
volume  than  they  do  at  the  present  time,  and  the  same 
is  true  of  the  western  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
where  there  is  ample  geological  evidence  that  this 
desiccation  was  begun  at  least  as  early  as  the  later 
Tertiary  epoch,  the  gravels  deposited  by  the  once  much 
larger  rivers  of  that  region  containing  abundant  fossils 
of  Miocene  and  Pliocene  age. 

The  founders  of  the  missions  of  California  were  the 
first  persons  historically  known  to  have  practiced  irri- 
gation within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  and  this 
they  were  led  to  do  by  knowledge  of  the  business 

1  See  ante,  p.  89,  for  statistics  of  the  area  at  present  under  irrigation, 
and  of  the  density  of  the  population  of  Arizona. 


CALIFORNIA  AND  COLORADO.  259 

brought  from  Mexico  and  even  from  Spain.  Mr. 
Wilson  considers  that  the  old  mission  of  San  Juan 
Capistrano,  near  San  Diego,  was  "  the  site  of  probably 
the  oldest  irrigation  development  by  civilized  people  in 
this  country."  The  Mormons,  immediately  after  their 
settlement  in  Salt  Lake  Valley,  became  aware  of  the 
necessity  of  irrigation  in  that  region,  and  the  practice 
of  bringing  water  from  the  mountains  above  for  use  in 
gold-washing  led  the  miners  along  the  western  base 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  to  similar  results  in  that  region, 
the  ditches  first  constructed  for  mining  purposes  being 
soon  utilized,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  for  "rrigation.1 
Very  much  the  same  condition  of  things  occurred  in 
Colorado,  where  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago  those 
who  began  by  mining  for  gold  and  failed  of  success 
were  led  to  take  up  agriculture,  and  soon  found  out 
that  they  could  not  succeed  without  obtaining  an 
artificial  supply  of  water. 

The  statistics  given  on  a  preceding  page 2  show  that 
it  is  only  in  California  and  Colorado  that  more  than 
one  per  cent  of  the  entire  land  surface  is  irrigated, 
while  Utah  stands  third  in  the  list,  these  three  being 
the  only  States  or  Territories  of  which  the  irrigated 
area  amounts  to  as  much  as  half  of  one  per  cent  of  the 
whole.  The  great  superiority  of  the  States  of  Califor- 
nia and  Colorado  with  respect  to  the  development  of 
agriculture  by  means  of  irrigation  is  easily  accounted 
for.  In  both  mining  is  and  has  been  actively  and  suc- 
cessfully pursued,  and  a  home  market  thus  secured  ; 
both  are  favorably  situated  for  the  establishment  of 
extensive  and  successful  irrigational  works,  since  both 

1  See  ante,  p.  28.  2  See  ante,  p.  232. 


260  LEGISLATION  AND  ADMINISTRATION. 

include  broad  and  lofty  ranges  of  mountains  on  which 
snow  falls  in  large  quantity,  and  from  which  flow 
perennial  streams  of  pure  water.  California,  however, 
possesses  an  additional  advantage  in  that  its  irrigable 
lands  do  not  lie  at  a  high  elevation  above  the  sea  level, 
as  is  the  case  in  Colorado,  so  that  they  are  more  favor- 
ably situated  with  regard  to  climate,  and  especially  well 
suited  to  the  raising  of  fruit,  large  quantities  of  which 
are  shipped  to  the  Eastern  States  to  supply  a  region 
where  semi-tropical  products  cannot  be  raised,  so  that 
in  this  way  a  very  extensive  business  has  been  devel- 
oped, which  the  early  settlers  in  California  could  not 
have  foreseen.  The  less  favorable  conditions  of  Utah 
in  these  respects  are  manifested  in  the  diminished  area 
of  that  territory  cultivated  by  the  help  of  irrigation, 
this  being  about  one  fourth  of  that  thus  cultivated  in 
California  and  one  third  of  that  in  Colorado. 

Under  the  head  of  "  Legislation  and  Administration" 
Mr.  Wilson  next  proceeds  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  what 
has  been  done  in  this  direction  by  State  legislatures  and 
by  Congress.  In  California  and  Colorado,  and  more 
notably  in  Wyoming,  it  appears  that  "  legislation  has 
been  enacted  which  covers  many  important  features 
calling  for  attention,"  while  the  government  of  the 
United  States  is  said  "to  have  enacted  little  legisla- 
tion for  the  protection  of  irrigators  or  of  corporations 
intending  constructions."  To  this,  however,  is  added 
the  statement,  that  "  government  has  in  recent  years 
done  a  great  deal  for  the  encouragement  of  irrigation 
by  directing  investigations  in  various  channels,  and 
making  provisions  for  surveys  and  experiments  on  the 
more  important  abstract  questions  relating  to  irriga- 


SEGREGATION  OF  IRRIGABLE  LANDS.  261 

tion."  The  work  of  the  Agricultural  Department,  of 
which  considerable  has  been  said  in  the  preceding  pages 
of  the  present  volume,  is  also  alluded  to,  as  well  as  the 
investigations  ordered  to  be  made  by  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  the  nature  of  which  has  already  been 
indicated.1 

In  regard  to  the  present  status  of  the  work  executed 
under  the  direction  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey,  and  the  action  of  Congress  in  that  connection, 
the  following  statement  is  offered  by  Mr.  Wilson : 
"  Appropriations  were  made  for  the  fiscal  years  ending 
in  June,  1889  and  1890,  and  the  work  prosecuted  with 
vigor.  The  following  Congress,  however,  failed  to 
make  appropriations  for  the  continuance  of  this  work, 
and  little  has  been  done  since  beyond  the  completion  of 
reports  and  the  segregation  of  reservoir  sites  by  the 
topographic  field  parties  of  the  Geological  Survey. 
The  clause  contained  in  the  bill  above  cited,  which 
provided  for  the  segregation  and  withdrawal  from  sale 
or  occupation  of  irrigable  lands,  was  repealed  by  act  of 
Congress  passed  in  the  spring  of  1891.  A  further  act, 
however,  passed  during  the  same  Congress  and  ap- 
proved March  3,  1891,  made  some  regulations  and 
provisions  regarding  the  mode  of  obtaining  and  set- 
tling on  public  lands,  which,  while  it  does  not  go  as  far 
as  the  act  segregating  irrigable  lands,  prevents  the 
wholesale  occupation  of  the  same  by  corporations  or 
speculators." 

As  the  law  seems  to  stand  at  present,  no  one  settler 
can  acquire  a  title  to  more  than  320  acres,  the  amount 
having  been  reduced  from  1>120  acres,  which  it  would 

1  See  ante,  pp.  29-31. 


262  AMERICAN  IRRIGATION   ENGINEERING. 

seem  that  a  settler  previous  to  that  change  could  have 
acquired  by  means  of  an  ordinary  pre-emption  act  and 
the  so-called  "  timber-culture  act."  The  present  enact- 
ments make  it  possible  for  settlers  to  obtain  title  to 
reservoir  sites  and  right  of  way  for  irrigation  works 
over  government  lands  without  payment  for  the  same, 
and  by  merely  filing  on  the  land  and  fulfilling  the 
requirements  of  the  law,  of  which  the  most  important 
seems  to  be  the  expenditure  of  three  dollars  per  acre, 
or  one  dollar  per  year  for  three  successive  years,  on 
each  acre  claimed. 

Following  the  above  more  general  considerations  in 
regard  to  irrigation  comes  a  detailed  description  of 
various  irrigation  works,  such  having  been  selected  for 
this  purpose  as  embody  all  the  principal  features  dis- 
tinguishing American  irrigation  engineering.  Under 
the  head  of  "  Perennial  Canals,"  illustrations  of  works 
of  this  class  are  furnished  from  California,  Colorado, 
Arizona,  Wyoming,  New  Mexico,  Utah,  and  Idaho. 
Most  of  the  works  described  are  intended  for  irriga- 
tion, but  a  few  furnish  water  for  mining  also,  and  one 
has  been  built  to  supply  power  for  the  state  prison  at 
Folsom,  in  California.  These  latter  works  are  described 
by  Mr.  Wilson  as  being  "  the  most  substantial  and  elabo- 
rate of  their  kind  that  have  been  constructed,  either  in 
this  country,  Europe,  or  India."  Furnishing  water-power 
for  the  prison  is  the  main  object  of  this  canal,  but  it  is 
also  intended  that  the  water  shall  be  used  for  irrigation 
and  for  hydraulic  mining.  Some  of  the  difficulties  of 
this  enterprise  may  be  inferred  from  the  facts  reported 
by  Mr.  Wilson,  that  a  depth  of  thirty-one  feet  of  water 
has  passed  over  the  crest  of  the  weir,  on  the  occasion 


WATER  STORAGE.  263 

of  one  high  spring  flood,  and  that  in  this  same  year  a 
depth  of  thirty  feet  of  wet  silt  was  deposited  in  the 


reservoir.1 


Following  the  chapter  devoted  to  perennial  canals  in 
Mr.  Wilson's  report  comes  one  in  which  certain  techni- 
cal details  connected  with  their  construction  are  dis- 
cussed, under  the  heads  of  "  Headworks,"  "  Weirs," 
"  Diversion  Dams,"  "  Regulators,"  "  Escapes,"  "  Falls 
and  Rapids,"  and  "  Drainage  Works,  Flumes,  Siphons, 
etc."  Next  comes  a  chapter  the  several  sections  of 
which  are  entitled,  "  Distribution  and  Measurement  of 
Water,"  "Application  of  Water,"  and  "Maintenance 
and  Supervision." 

This  matter  is  purely  technical,  and  its  discussion 
does  not  fall  within  the  province  of  the  present  volume, 
neither  could  its  results  be  epitomized  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  be  intelligible  and  useful. 

The  chapter  next  to  those  cited  above,  which  is  en- 
titled "  Water  Storage,"  presents  interesting  features, 
some  of  which  may  here  be  indicated,  especially  as  this 
department  of  irrigation  engineering  is  that  in  which 
falls  most  of  the  work  done  under  the  direction  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey,  and  which  is  evidently 
considered  by  its  officials  as  being  much  more  important 
than  any  other.  Storage  reservoirs  are  constructions 
with  which  Eastern  engineers  are  familiar,  since  it  is 
by  them  that  many  of  the  largest  cities  at  the  East 
are  supplied  with  water,  although  this  is  not  there 
used  for  irrigational  purposes. 

1  How  irrigation  works  of  any  kind  can  be  built  which  will  stand  such 
a  freshet  as  that  of  the  year  1861-62,  which  extended  over  the  whole 
Sacramento  Valley,  the  present  writer  confesses  himself  not  able  to  under- 
stand. 


264  STORAGE   RESERVOIRS. 

In  regard  to  this  matter  Mr.  Wilson  makes  the  fol- 
lowing remarks  :  "  Since  the  passage  of  the  Act  of 
Congress  signed  October  2,  1888,  providing  for  the 
survey  by  government  engineers  and  the  withdrawal 
from  occupation  of  lands  included  within  reservoir 
sites,  and  since  the  passage  of  a  subsequent  act,  ap- 
proved March  3,  1891,  regulating  the  methods  of 
disposal  of  these  reserved  storage  sites,  the  growth 
of  the  popular  interest  in  the  subject  of  water  storage 
in  the  West  has  led  to  the  development  of  a  great 
number  of  storage  projects,  a  few  of  which  are  already 
under  construction.  Many  of  these  are  within  them- 
selves excellent  and  feasible  projects,  and  will  some 
day  be  undertaken,  while  a  large  proportion  will  in 
the  course  of  time  prove  impracticable  and  be  aban- 
doned." l 

Mr.  Wilson  next  proceeds  to  give  descriptions,  with 
considerable  engineering  detail,  of  various  reservoir 
projects  which  have  already  been  more  or  less  com- 
pletely carried  out.  There  are  seven  of  these.  The 
first  mentioned  is  the  reservoir  and  canal  system  of  the 
"  San  Diego  Flume  Company,"  which  is  said  to  contain 
nearly  all  of  the  typical  features  of  a  combined  storage 
and  irrigation  system.  It  consists  of  a  storage  reser- 
voir situated  high  up  in  the  Coast  Ranges  of  California, 
and  of  the  bed  of  the  San  Diego  River,  down  which  the 
storage  waters  flow  for  some  distance,  and  are  then 
diverted  to  a  wooden  flume,  which  conducts  them  to 
the  irrigable  lands.  The  reservoir  is  about  seventy 

1  See  ante,  p.  31,  where  the  location  of  the  sites  for  reservoirs  selected 
by  the  Geological  Survey  is  indicated,  and  various  other  particulars  men- 
tioned in  regard  to  them. 


STORAGE   RESERVOIRS.  265 

miles  east  of  San  Diego,  and  is  situated  at  an  altitude 
of  5,500  feet.  It  has  a  capacity  of  11,500  acre-feet. 
There  are  in  all  about  thirty-six  miles  of  wooden  flume 
and  trestle-work,  the  number  of  trestles  being  315,  and 
there  are  eight  tunnels,  the  longest  of  which  is  nearly 
2,000  feet  long.  The  total  cost  of  the  work,  to  the 
end  of  the  year  1888,  is  stated  at  $958,790.  The 
water-supply  as  yet  provided  for  it  is  said  by  Mr. 
Wilson  to  be  insufficient ;  but  an  enlargement  of  the 
works  by  the  diversion  of  the  head-waters  of  other 
streams  and  the  construction  of  additional  storage 
reservoirs  is  contemplated. 

The  next  project  mentioned  is  the  "  Merced  Reser- 
voir," which  consists  of  a  temporary  diversion  weir  on 
the  Merced  River,  about  twenty-five  miles  above  the 
city  of  Merced,  in  California,  and  a  canal  twenty-seven 
miles  long,  which  leads  to  the  distributing  canals  and 
pipes  through  which  the  town  and  the  irrigable  lands 
are  supplied.  The  reservoir  has  a  surface  area  of  500 
acres,  and  is  closed  by  a  dam  4,000  feet  in  length 
and  fifty-four  in  maximum  height,  which  is  con- 
structed entirely  of  earth.  The  total  expenditure  has 
been  about  $1,500,000  ;  but  this  includes  the  cost  of 
most  of  the  land  owned  by  the  company,  amounting 
in  all  to  about  60,000  acres.  The  irrigable  lands 
commanded  by  this  canal  system  are  said  to  be  well 
adapted  to  raising  fruit  and  vegetables. 

"  Long  Valley  Reservoir,'*  the  third  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
projects,  is  in  Honey  Valley,  in  Northern  California. 
The  plan,  which  seems  as  yet  to  exist  only  on  paper, 
includes  a  storage  reservoir  having  an  area  of  1,080 
acres,  and  closed  by  an  earthen  dam  ninety-six  feet 


266  STORAGE   RESERVOIRS. 

in  maximum  height  and  950  feet  in  length.  The  cost 
is  estimated  at  about  $100,000. 

The  "  "Walnut  Grove  Reservoir/'  on  the  Hassayampa 
River,  in  Arizona,  is  the  next  project  discussed  by  Mr. 
"Wilson.  The  locality  is  about  thirty  miles  south  of 
Prescott,  and  the  object  of  the  storage  reservoir  formed 
there  was  to  furnish  water  for  mining  gravel  in  the  bed 
of  the  river,  and  for  irrigating  the  land  in  the  valley 
below.  This  dam  is  described  in  considerable  detail, 
the  object  being  apparently  to  illustrate  its  defective 
construction,  since  it  was  carried  away  by  a  cloud- 
burst with  great  loss  of  life  in  1890.  It  was  of  the 
type  known  as  the  "  rock-filled  dam,"  which  is  said  to 
be  "  essentially  the  product  of  Western  engineering." 

The  "  Castlewood  Reservoir,"  of  which  a  description 
follows  next  in  Mr.  Wilson's  report,  is  said  to  be  a 
very  interesting  scheme  which  combines  two  different 
systems  of  water  storage.  The  system  comprises  a 
main  storage  reservoir  known  as  Castlewood  Lake, 
situated  on  Cherry  Creek,  Colorado,  at  a  narrow  point 
in  the  canon,  about  thirty  miles  southeast  of  the  city 
of  Denver,  and  of  a  diversion  weir  a  mile  and  a  half 
lower  down  on  the  creek  which  receives  the  water  that 
has  been  turned  into  it  from  the  reservoir,  and  passes 
it  into  a  canal  which  heads  at  the  weir  and  by  which  it 
is  conveyed  to  the  irrigable  land  lying  southeast  of 
Denver.  There  are  also  four  secondary  reservoirs, 
situated  in  different  parts  of  the  tract  to  be  irrigated, 
and  these  are  natural  depressions  in  the  surface.  The 
design  of  the  dam  is  said  to  be  peculiar,  and  to  have 
been  the  cause  of  alarm  to  the  people  living  below  it, 
so  that  it  was  not  allowed  to  be  filled,  and  a  heavy 


BEAR  VALLEY  RESERVOIR.  267 

earth  embankment  has  been  planned  to  be  placed  above 
for  its  reinforcement,  and  this  is  said  by  Mr.  Wilson  to 
be  "under  construction  and  now  nearly  completed." 
The  capital  of  the  company  is  $2,500,000,  and  from, 
the  proceeds  of  a  portion  of  the  stock  sold  land  has 
been  purchased,  and  about  $425,000  spent  on  the 
dam. 

"  Bear  Valley  Reservoir "  is  situated  in  the  San 
Bernardino  Mountains,  a  little  east  and  north  of  the 
town  of  that  name,  its  purpose  being  to  irrigate  the 
land  in  that  vicinity.  Bear  Valley  itself  is  a  large 
basin  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains,  at  an  altitude  of 
about  6,200  feet,  where  the  rainfall  is  very  large.1  The 
lands  to  be  irrigated  are  said  to  have  shown  such  a 
remarkable  development,  and  the  value  of  water  for 
irrigation  to  have  increased  so  rapidly  within  the  pa^t 
few  years,  that  the  company  has  extended  its  scope 
and  operations,  and  is  constructing  a  new  and  larger 
dam  to  replace  the  existing  one,  which,  as  Mr.  Wilson 
remarks,  "  has  been  frequently  described  because  of  the 
peculiarly  bold  cross  section  given  to  it."2  The  new 
dam  is  to  be  a  much  larger  and  more  substantial  struc- 

1  According  to  observations  made  in  the  year  1883-84,  the  rainfall 
amounted  to  93.3  inches,  and  in  the  months  of  February  and  March  it  was 
respectively  twenty-four  and  thirty-five  inches.     That  year  was  an  excep- 
tional one,  and  the   annual   average   is   presumably  less  than   this.     In 
February,    1890,   a  fall    of    nineteen    inches  in    twenty-four  hours  was 
measured  at  the  dam  site. 

2  This  dam,  built  of  rough  ashlar  masonry  on  both  faces,  filled  with 
coursed  rubble  masonry  in  the  interior,  laid  in  uniform  beds  of  Portland 
cement,  is  3.2  feet  wide  at  the  top,  the  lower  face  being  vertical  for  forty- 
eight  feet,  while  the  upper  face  has  such  a  batter  that  at  a  depth  of  forty- 
eight  feet  from  the  crest  it  is  only  eight  and  a  half  feet  in  thickness,  while 
the  foundation  is  twenty-feet  thick  only.     The  total  height  of  the  dam  is 
sixty-four  feet.  • 


268  STORAGE   RESERVOIRS. 

ture  than  the  old  one.  It  will  be  about  120  feet  in 
extreme  height,  fifteen  feet  wide  at  the  top,  and  seventy- 
three  and  a  half  at  the  bottom,  and  built  of  the  best 
granite  masonry  throughout. 

The  "  Sweetwater  Reservoir  "  is  a  storage  reservoir 
for  the  waters  of  a  creek  of  that  name  about  twenty- 
five  miles  east  of  San  Diego,  in  the  suburbs  of  which 
town,  as  well  as  for  irrigation  in  the  vicinity,  these 
waters  are  used.  The  dam  is  ninety-four  feet  high, 
forty-six  feet  thick  at  the  base,  and  twelve  feet  at  the 
top,  the  extreme  length  being  380  feet.  This  dam, 
like  some  others  in  this  region,  is  arched  up  stream, 
and  Mr.  Wilson  says  of  it  that  its  cross  section  is 
"  much  lighter  than  theory  would  call  for  in  a  struc- 
ture expected  to  stand  by  gravity  alone,"  but  "  great 
reliance  has  been  placed  on  its  curved  plan  and  the 
shortness  of  the  radius  of  this  curvature." 

Various  other  reservoir  projects  are  now  briefly 
described  by  Mr.  Wilson,  among  which  that  of  the 
Lake  Hemet  Water  Company  may  be  mentioned,  since 
of  this  it  is  said  that  when  completed  "  the  reservoir 
will  form  one  of  the  largest  of  its  kind,  while  the  dam 
closing  it  will  be  nearly  the  highest  and  probably  the 
best  constructed  ever  built."  The  water  is  to  be  used 
for  irrigating  land  in  the  San  Jacinto  Valley,  California. 
The  height  of  the  proposed  dam  is  150  feet ;  its  length 
on  top  at  120  feet  will  be  220  feet,  and  at  160  feet  400 
feet ;  the  top  width  is  ten  feet,  and  the  thickness  at 
bottom  100  feet.  The  dam  is  arched  up  stream,  with  a 
radius  of  300  feet,  and  is  constructed  throughout  of  the 
largest  uncoursed  rubble  masonry.  The  estimated  ca- 
pacity of  the  reservoir  at  a  depth  of  150  feet  will  be 


WATER  STORAGE.  269 

26,000  acre-feet,  and  with  a  depth  of  160  feet  32,500 
acre-feet,  sufficient  for  a  constant  discharge  for  180 
days  of  about  100  second-feet.  The  cost  of  the  dam 
is  estimated  at  $250,000,  and  the  pipes,  flumes,  and 
distribution  system  will  cost  $250,000  more. 

Another  somewhat  similar  work,  now  in  process  of 
construction,  is  "  Reservoir  No.  1  of  the  Arrowhead 
Reservoir  Company,"  which  is  to  gather  the  head 
waters  of  the  Mohave  River  on  the  northern  slope 
of  the  San  Bernardino  Range,  to  be  used  for  irriga- 
tion in  the  valley  of  that  name.  On  this  work  will  be 
six  tunnels  aggregating  three  miles  in  length,  and  about 
sixty  miles  of  conduits.  The  dam  will  be  150  feet 
high,  arched  in  plan,  with  a  radius  of  575  feet.  "  Its 
cross  section  will  be  unusually  slight,  its  length  on  top 
being  680  feet,  and  its  width  at  top  ten  feet  and  at  the 
base  only  forty-seven  and  a  half  feet."  Its  total  ca- 
pacity is  expected  to  be  about  68,000  acre-feet,  and  its 
catchment  area  is  seventy-five  square  miles,  on  which 
the  annual  precipitation  is  about  forty  inches.  The 
estimated  cost  of  the  entire  work  is  $1,500,000. 

Under  the  head  of  "Water  Storage,"  Mr.  Wilson 
next  proceeds  to  describe  the  great  reservoir  for  the 
storage  of  water  to  be  used  chiefly  for  the  supply  of 
the  city  of  Denver,  although  it  is  expected  that  a  small 
portion  of  it  will  be  taken  for  irrigation  in  and  about 
that  city.  The  water  is  to  be  collected  in  "  subsurface 
gathering  galleries  "  under  the  South  Platte  River,1  and 
two  storage  reservoirs  are  to  be  constructed,  closed  by 
"mammoth  earth  dams,"  one  below  the  other,  built 
across  two  valleys  near  Wheatland,  a  few  miles  above 

i  See  ante,  p.  229. 


270       SUBSURFACE  SOURCES  OF  SUPPLY. 

Denver.  As  the  catchment  area  of  the  reservoirs  is 
relatively  small,  the  water  to  fill  them  is  to  be  brought 
from  nineteen  miles  farther  up  the  river  in  a  wooden 
pipe  line  thirty  inches  in  diameter.  The  upper  reser- 
voir will  have  a  surface  area  of  322  acres,  with  a  mean 
depth  of  fifty-seven  feet  and  a  capacity  of  23,000  acre- 
feet;  the  lower  will  have  a  surface  area  of  157  acres, 
and  a  capacity  of  12,000  acre-feet.  The  upper  dam, 
which  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Wilson's  writing,  was  in  pro- 
cess of  construction,  is  705  feet  long  on  the  crest,  and 
261  feet  in  maximum  height ;  its  width  at  the  top 
being  thirty  feet,  and  at  the  base  986  feet.  The  lower 
dam  will  be  similar  to  the  upper  one  in  construction, 
and  not  very  different  from  it  in  dimensions,  its  width 
at  the  base  being  989  feet. 

The  next  subject  taken  up  by  Mr.  Wilson  in  his 
report  is  "  Subsurface  Sources  of  Supply/'  under  which 
designation  he  includes  "  all  those  sources  of  water-sup- 
ply which  are  obtained  by  mining,  digging,  or  boring/' 
It  is  a  well-known  fact,  he  says,  that  in  many  regions 
the  subsurface  water  level  rises  very  nearly  to  the 
surface,  while  nearly  everywhere  water  is  to  be  found 
at  some  greater  or  less  depth.  This  ground  water  in 
some  cases  may  be  nearly  inexhaustible ;  in  others,  of 
very  limited  amount.  In  regard  to  the  "  underflow," 
Mr.  Wilson  remarks  as  follows  :  "  Where  there  is  a  suf- 
ficient slope,  as  in  the  plains  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, this  ground  water  is  so  well  distributed  and  so 
great  in  amount  that  it  is  frequently,  though  incor- 
rectly, spoken  of  as  the  'underflow.'  This  is  not  an 
accurate  description,  as  the  water  does  not  flow  under 
the  soil,  though  there  is  a  slow  and  constant  creeping 


SUBMERGED  DAMS.  271 

motion  along  the  general  slopes,  due  chiefly  to  capillary 
attraction,  and  to  a  much  less  extent  to  the  action  of 
gravity." 

Passing  rapidly  over  this  branch  of  his  subject,  with 
the  remark  that  "  wells  from  which  water  must  be 
raised  by  pumping  are  as  yet  employed  in  this  coun- 
try to  such  an  extremely  limited  extent  as  to  deserve 
no  more  than  a  passing  mention,"  Mr.  Wilson  proceeds 
to  speak  of  the  subsurface  waters  which  flow  under 
the  dry  beds  of  the  mountain  torrents  and  streams 
of  the  southern  arid  region  ;  these,  he  thinks,  "  will  in 
the  future  furnish  a  moderate  supply  for  irrigation," 
and  are  extremely  interesting  "  because  of  the  engineer- 
ing devices  employed  in  rendering  them  available." 
The  development  of  the  ground  water  under  stream 
beds,  the  hillsides,  or  the  prairie  slopes  in  California, 
Colorado,  and  similar  regions,  is  said  to  offer  "  the 
greatest  field  for  engineering  ingenuity." 

To  this  class  of  undertakings  may  be  referred  the 
building  of  submerged  dams,  with  the  object  of  cutting 
off  the  subterranean  flow  and  bringing  the  water  to  the 
surface.  As  a  specimen  of  this  source  of  supply,  the 
works  of  the  American  Water  Company  of  Denver  are 
described.  These  consist  of  a  submerged  open  crib 
dam  in  the  gravel  and  sand  bed  of  Cherry  Creek, 
resting  on  solid  rock,  which  is  about  seventy-three  feet 
below  the  bed  of  the  stream.  Its  total  width,  across 
the  channel  of  the  stream,  is  700  feet,  which  is  less 
than  half  the  width  of  that  channel.  The  dam  is  ten 
feet  wide  at  its  crest,  and  seventeen  feet  at  the  bottom. 
A  pump  pit  or  well  is  sunk  from  the  hill  to  nearly  the 
same  level  as  the  bottom  of  the  dam,  and  the  water  is 


272  ENGINEERING  RESULTS. 

to  be  pumped  to  a  storage  reservoir  located  on  a  hill 
near  by. 

The  most  interesting  submerged  dam  yet  constructed 
is  said  to  be  that  of  the  San  Fernando  Land  and  Water 
Company  on  Pacoima  Creek,  in  Southern  California. 
The  object  of  this  dam  is  to  develop  the  water  which 
is  known  to  flow  under  the  dry  gravel  bed  of  the  stream 
during  most  of  the  irrigating  season.  For  this  purpose 
the  dam  is  built  in  a  straight  line  in  such  manner  that 
it  completely  shuts  off  the  flow  of  subterranean  water, 
and  forms  a  submerged  reservoir  in  the  gravel  about 
half  a  mile  in  width  and  several  miles  in  length,  av- 
eraging thirty  feet  deep.  The  subsurface  water  is 
gathered  by  means  of  cement  pipes,  which  lead  it  into 
two  wells  of  masonry  forming  part  of  the  structure  of 
the  dam,  and  from  these  it  runs  under  ground  to  the 
towns  of  Pacoima  and  San  Bernardino,  furnishing  a 
supply  for  irrigation  as  well  as  for  domestic  use. 

Various  methods  of  raising  the  subsurface  water  by 
means  of  pumps  are  next  described  by  Mr.  Wilson ; 
but,  as  he  remarks,  the  percentage  of  irrigation  which 
is  effected  in  this  way  is  "so  small  as  to  be  scarcely 
appreciable  when  compared  with  gravity  supplies." 
Still  he  thinks  "  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  employ- 
ment of  pumps  and  other  lift  apparatus  will  steadily 
and  rapidly  increase." 

The  concluding  portion  of  Mr.  Wilson's  report,  en- 
titled "  Engineering  Results  of  Irrigation  Survey," 
begins  with  a  brief  description  of  the  methods  by  which 
that  work  was  conducted,  the  principal  factors  of  which 
are  said  to  be :  "  (1)  the  delineations  and  segregations 
of  the  irrigable  lands  within  each  basin;  (2)  the  study 


ENGINEERING  RESULTS.  273 

of  the  sources  of  supply  and  hydrography  of  the  basins 
from  which  these  lands  should  be  watered  ;  (3)  detailed 
surveys  indicating  the  methods  by  which  the  best  use 
should  be  made  of  this  water  supply  for  the  irrigation 
of  the  land."  After  a  summary  of  what  had  been 
accomplished  in  each  of  these  departments  up  to  the 
date  of  closing  his  report,  Mr.  Wilson  proceeds  as  fol- 
lows :  "  It  is  a  matter  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  in  no 
case  was  the  work  of  these  various  branches  completed, 
owing  to  the  discontinuance  of  the  appropriations  for 
continuing  the  work.  The  topographic  work  is  still 
being  carried  on  under  appropriations  for  that  purpose, 
and  valuable  preliminary  information  is  being  collected 
and  published  as  rapidly  as  obtained.  This  work  is 
complete  within  itself  as  far  as  it  goes.  A  certain 
amount  of  hydrographic  work,  consisting  chiefly  of 
stream  gaugings  and  the  discussion  and  study  of  them, 
is  still  being  conducted,  and  this  work  already  furnishes 
us  with  a  great  deal  of  information  relative  to  the 
hydrography  of  the  arid  region  and  the  various  hydro- 
graphic  basins  contained  therein.  This  work  will  in 
the  course  of  a  series  of  observations  extending  over  a 
period  of  years  be  complete  within  itself  so  far  as  it 
goes,  though  many  correlated  studies,  especially  those 
relating  to  evaporation,  seepage,  and  the  duty  of  water, 
and  similar  problems,  should  be  investigated  before  the 
study  of  the  hydrographic  basins  approaches  absolute 
completion." 

Finally,  after  enumerating  all  the  factors  required  to 
be  known  before  the  engineering  work  of  the  Irrigation 
Survey  could  be  considered  as  being  complete,  (and  this 
department  is  said  in  particular  to  have  suffered  from 

18 


274  ENGINEERING  RESULTS. 

lack  of  appropriation,)  five  of  the  drainage  basins,  in 
which  "  all  these  factors  have  been  obtained  in  a  pre- 
liminary and  incomplete  manner/'  are  reported  on,  and 
a  statement  given  in  regard  to  each,  with  accompanying 
diagrams  and  sections,  so  that  the  exact  condition  of 
the  work  may  be  clearly  understood. 

These  surveys  are  grouped  in  the  description  under 
the  following  heads:  (1)  Arkansas  Basin,  Colorado; 
(2)  Sun  River  system,  Montana ;  (3)  Truckee  and 
Carson  River  systems,  Nevada  ;  (4)  California  Divis- 
ion, including  seven  reservoirs  in  the  High  Sierra, 
and  a  survey  of  Clear  Lake  in  the  Coast  Ranges ; 
(5)  El  Paso  Reservoir;  (6)  Pocatello  Canal,  Idaho. 

Having  in  the  preceding  pages  passed  over  in  review 
the  more  important  publications  of  the  various  irriga- 
tion surveys,  and  given  a  synopsis  of  the  opinions  held 
and  theories  advocated  by  the  officials  who  have,  under 
government  authority,  been  employed  in  the  different 
departments  of  the  work,  a  few  general  remarks  bear- 
ing on  some  of  the  problems  which  have  presented 
themselves  will  properly  be  here  appended. 

It  cannot  fail  to  have  been  noticed  how  much  the 
views  of  those  who  have  written  about  the  water- 
supply  of  the  arid  region  differ  in  many  important 
points,  and  how  far  the  present  writer  is  from  agreeing 
with  some  of  the  authors  whose  opinions  he  has  sub- 
jected to  criticism.  It  will  also  have  been  seen  that 
with  the  progress  of  the  irrigational  investigation  some 
of  those  employed  in  the  work  have  themselves  been 
led  to  adopt  much  less  exaggerated  ideas  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  irrigation  than  they  were  inclined  to  hold  at 
the  time  of  beginning  their  labors.  The  present  writer 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  275 

in  the  earlier  pages  of  this  volume  (the  later  works 
reviewed  by  him  not  having  then  appeared  or  come 
into  his  possession)  occupied  more  space  in  controvert- 
ing some  of  the  views  then  generally  advocated  by  the 
government  officials  than  would  be  necessary  at  the 
present  time,  because  the  earlier  exaggerations  have  in 
a  measure  been  relinquished,  and  a  more  sober  mental 
condition  has  begun  to  prevail.  This  is  especially  the 
case  with  the  later  contributions  of  the  irrigational 
department  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 
The  views  of  those  employed  in  that  work  do  not  differ 
very  essentially  in  reference  to  the  most  important 
points  from  those  advocated  by  the  present  writer. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  any  long  discussion  of 
the  matter  in  order  that  it  may  be  made  clear  that  an 
inadequate  supply  of  water  must  necessarily  be  a  great 
drawback  to  the  prosperity  of  a  region  laboring  under 
this  disadvantage.  The  density  of  the  population  of 
that  part  of  the  earth  which  is  not  uninhabitable  on 
account  of  extreme  cold  is  more  affected  by  this  cause 
than  by  any  other.  There  is  no  nation  which  holds  a 
commanding  position  in  respect  to  population,  wealth, 
and  political  influence  which  is  not  occupying  —  in 
large  part,  at  least  — -  a  region  of  adequate  precipita- 
tion. All  the  drier  portions  of  the  earth's  surface  are 
thinly  populated,  and  the  very  dry  regions  are  almost 
uninhabitable.  That  this  may  not  always  have  been 
the  case  in  former  times  must,  however,  be  admitted, 
for  the  countries  bordering  on  the  Eastern  Mediterra- 
nean, where  was  once  the  focus  of  enlightenment,  were 
probably  somewhat  scantily  supplied  with  water  when 
at  the  height  of  their  power.  That  this  region  is  now, 


276  GENERAL  REMARKS. 

or  could  easily  be,  entirely  controlled  by  nations  occu- 
pying areas  of  abundant  rainfall  is  not  a  matter  of 
accident :  there  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  this 
more  favorable  climatic  condition  is  a  powerful  factor 
in  these  changed  relations  of  intellectual  development 
and  political  power. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  part  of  the  United  States 
which  is  inadequately  supplied  with  moisture  will  never 
compare  in  density  of  population  with  that  more  favor- 
ably situated  in  this  respect.  There  are  portions  of  the 
arid  region,  however,  which  are  important  on  account 
of  the  deposits  of  the  metals  and  their  ores  which  they 
possess.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  that  region  of 
small  precipitation,  but  of  large  mineral  resources,  which 
lies  between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Ne- 
vada, and  embraces  a  large  part  of  both  those  great 
mountain  systems.  The  metallic  treasures  which  the 
Cordilleran  region  contains,  however,  are  not  inexhaust- 
ible, and  the  prosperity  of  a  region  dependent  on  their 
development  will  not  be  of  indefinite  continuance. 
The  energy,  or  even  recklessness,  with  which  these 
mineral  resources  of  the  Western  United  States  have 
been  and  are  likely  to  continue  to  be  developed  forbids 
the  idea  of  their  long  duration.  The  statistics  which 
have  been  presented  in  the  preceding  pages  of  this 
volume  show  plainly  how  great  the  contrast  is  between 
the  well  watered  and  the  arid  portions  of  the  United 
States,  although  the  mines  of  the  drier  metal-producing 
region  have  been  in  process  of  development  for  nearly 
half  a  century. 

The  region  which  lies  east  of  the  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  is  not  metalliferous,  belongs  in  part  to 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  277 

the  arid  and  in  part  to  the  semi-arid  belt.  Under  the 
name  of  the  "  Great  Plains/'  much  has  been  said  of 
its  topographical  character  and  its  conditions  of  water- 
supply  in  the  preceding  pages.  In  spite  of  the  sanguine 
expectations  of  some  of  its  inhabitants,  backed  by 
the  opinions  of  various  irrigation  officials,  it  may  confi- 
dently be  asserted  that  it  will  remain  as  it  is  —  a  thinly 
inhabited  pastoral  region,  in  which  the  water-supply 
will  chiefly  be  drawn  from  deep  wells,  by  the  aid  of 
steam  in  some  cases,  but  mostly  by  means  of  wind- 
mills. The  use  of  this  water  for  irrigation  will  be  very 
limited,  and  what  is  raised  for  that  purpose  will  be  for 
small  gardens.  It  is  impossible  that  people  never  seeing 
a  river  or  a  lake,  or  water  running  except  from  the 
spout  of  a  pump,  never  seeing  a  mountain  or  a  ledge  of 
solid  rock,  never  seeing  what  with  any  propriety  could 
be  called  a  forest  —  it  is  impossible  that  those  liv- 
ing deprived  of  all  these  natural  advantages  can  ever 
rise  to  even  a  moderately  high  plane  of  civilization. 
Whether  the  population  of  this  part  of  the  country 
will  ever  become  so  dense  as  materially  to  affect  the 
supply  of  water  is  a  question  which  cannot  be  easily 
answered.  The  difficulties  which  may  arise,  as  respects 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  water  obtained  from 
the  deep  wells  on  the  Plains,  have  already  been  alluded 
to  in  the  preceding  pages,  and  more  need  not  be  added 
in  regard  to  them.  That  the  "fountain  method"  of 
utilizing  "  subsurface  water  "  will  ever  be  of  importance 
in  irrigation  seems  hardly  probable,  although  in  certain 
cases  some  of  the  ingenious  engineering  works  con- 
structed for  this  purpose,  and  which  have  been  described 
in  the  preceding  pages,  may  be  successful  in  providing 


278  GENERAL  REMARKS. 

water  for  use  in  those  favorably  situated  towns  which 
are  natural  centres  of  travel  or  of  raining  develop- 
ment. 

The  importance  of  Artesian  wells,  not  only  in  gen- 
eral, but  especially  with  reference  to  their  use  in  irriga- 
tion, has  been  much  exaggerated.  Only  on  four  tenths 
of  one  per  cent  of  the  total  land  area  west  of  the  100th 
meridian  were  crops  raised  by  the  help  of  irrigation  at 
the  time  the  last  census  was  taken,  and  only  on  1.43 
per  cent  of  the  irrigated  area  was  Artesian  water  used. 
In  the  well-watered  part  of  the  country  Artesian  wells 
are  never  used  for  irrigation,  and  of  the  many  deep- 
bored  wells  on  the  Atlantic  coast  and  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  the  water  of  very  few  is  of  value  for  any  pur- 
pose, unless  it  be  medicinal.  The  regions  in  which 
Artesian  water  can  be  obtained  are  few  in  number,  and 
of  small  dimensions  as  compared  with  the  total  area  of 
the  country.  Much  the  most  important  of  these  seems 
to  be  that  of  the  Grand  and  Black  Prairie  region  of 
Texas ;  but  in  regard  to  the  composition  of  the  water 
which  there  comes  to  the  surface  in  such  large  quantity 
more  information  is  much  to  be  desired. 

There  does  not  seem  to  be  anywhere  in  the  United 
States  an  Artesian  area  possessing  the  ideal  basin  struc- 
ture which  is  so  typically  presented  by  the  wells  in  and 
near  Paris,  which  draw  their  supply  from  the  Lower 
Greensand.  In  the  Artesian  districts  of  the  Atlantic 
coast  and  of  Texas  the  assemblage  of  strata  has  a  uni- 
form dip  toward  the  sea,  and  is  made  up  of  alternating 
permeable  and  impermeable  beds.  The  necessary  pres- 
sure, which  in  the  case  of  a  complete  basin  is  furnished 
by  the  water  seeking  to  descend  from  all  sides  toward 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  279 

the  centre,  is,  when  only  one  leg  or  one  side  of  the 
synclinal  is  present,  derived  from  the  inability  of  the 
water  to  find  any  escape  below.  This  condition  is  due, 
in  most  cases,  to  the  fact  that  the  pervious  beds  which 
hold  the  water  become  less  and  less  capable  of  allowing 
it  to  pass  through  them,  because  their  particles  are  finer 
and  more  clayey  .material  is  mixed  with  them,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  distance  over  which  the  sediment  of 
which  the  rocks  are  formed  has  been  carried  from  the 
place  where  it  originated.  In  a  somewhat  similar  man- 
ner, Artesian  conditions  may  be  produced  by  a  fault  or 
fissure  which  has  become  filled  with  clay,  or  by  a  dike 
of  impermeable  volcanic  material  which  intersects  the 
basin,  the  function  of  this  being  to  intercept  the  pas- 
sage of  the  water  to  a  lower  level  at  which  it  might 
escape  in  the  form  of  springs,  but  where,  if  no  opportu- 
nity for  its  discharge  in  this  way  is  offered,  it  must 
accumulate  under  pressure,  which  will  cause  it  to  rise 
whenever  the  stratum  in  which  it  is  thus  confined  is 
penetrated  by  the  borer. 

The  theory  which  has  been  sometimes  advocated  by 
geologists,  that,  where  an  examination  of  the  strati- 
graphical  character  of  the  region  fails  to  reveal  the  ex- 
istence of  the  requisites  for  an  Artesian  flow,  but  where, 
notwithstanding  this,  water  does  rise  to  the  surface 
when  a  water-bearing  stratum  has  been  reached  by  the 
drill,  there  the  pressure  of  the  rock  is  the  cause  of  this 
anomalous  condition  of  things,  cannot  be  accepted  as 
being  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem.  When 
examined  in  the  light  of  our  knowledge  of  the  physical 
characters  of  rocks,  this  theory  is  found  to  have  no 
basis  of  truth.  Neither  gas,  oil,  nor  water  can  escape 


280  GENERAL  REMARKS. 

from  the  strata  in  which,  they  are  confined  without 
some  other  cause  than  the  simple  gravity  of  the  par- 
ticles between  which  they  are  enclosed.  Gas,  however, 
does  escape  under  great  pressure,  and  this  is  often  ac- 
companied by  oil  and  water,  either  mixed  or  separately. 
That  the  pressure  which  this  gas  exerts  is  the  result 
of  the  manner  of  its  formation  is  generally  admitted. 
Generated  under  conditions  which  are  not  clearly  un- 
derstood, but  which  result  from  the  transformation  of 
organic  matter,  the  gaseous  particles  are  held  impris- 
oned between  formations  through  which  they  are  unable 
to  pass,  until  a  chance  of  escape  is  offered  through  the 
hole  made  by  the  drill.  But  of  course  the  gas  may 
exert  its  pressure,  and  force  either  oil  or  water  to  rise 
to  the  surface  without  being  itself  able  to  escape,  its 
exit  being  prevented  by  interposed  accumulations  of 
either  or  both  of  these  substances.  Oil,  water,  brine, 
and  gas  are  all  products  of  various  wells  sunk  in  the 
pretroleum-producing  regions  of  the  country,  and  it  is 
necessary  to  admit  that  there  may  be  areas  over  which 
the  pressure  of  gas  is  exerted  to  raise  water  to  the 
surface  without  itself  appearing  in  any  considerable 
quantity.  Most  of  the  localities  where  water  rises 
above  the  surface,  but  where  the  ordinary  Artesian 
conditions  seem  to  be  wanting,  are  at  no  great  distance 
from  gas  or  petroleum  producing  regions. 

The  subject  of  water-supply  for  irrigational  purposes 
by  means  of  storage  reservoirs,  which  has  been  the 
chief  field  in  which  the  officials  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  have  labored,  is  a  difficult  one. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  water  can  be  obtained  in 
large  quantity  by  this  method ;  and  as  there  are  locali- 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  281 

ties  where  it  is  already  in  use,  so  others  will  be  found 
where  it  may  properly  and  profitably  be  introduced. 
But  these  appear  to  be  regions  where  the  conditions 
are  exceptionally  favorable.  That  the  construction  of 
storage  reservoirs  is  a  kind  of  improvement  which 
demands  very  large  capital  cannot  be  denied,  and  the 
responsibility  and  expenditure  by  no  means  end  with 
the  completion  of  the  necessary  dams  and  reservoirs : 
these  must  be  kept  in  order  and  constantly  watched 
with  a  vigilant  eye,  the  more  so  because  over  much  of 
the  area  where  works  of  this  nature  have  been  projected 
the  irregularities  of  the  precipitation  are  extraordinarily 
great,  while  the  disastrous  effects  of  such  events  as 
cloud-bursts  can  only  with  difficulty  be  guarded  against, 
even  with  the  exercise  of  the  greatest  engineering  skill 
in  the  original  construction,  and  of  constant  vigilance 
after  the  delivery  of  the  water  has  begun. 

Up  to  the  present  time  there  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  any  serious  attempt  made  to  turn  over  the  busi- 
ness of  building  dams  and  reservoirs  for  water-supply 
of  the  arid  region  to  the  General  Government,  as  has 
been  done,  to  a  certain  extent,  with  reference  to  sup- 
posed  improvement  of  the  navigation  of  certain  rivers.1 
That  something  of  this  kind  may  eventually  be  asked 
for  by  the  settlers  in  the  Cordilleran  States  is  by  no 
means  impossible.  An  idea  of  the  amount  of  expen- 
diture which  such  a  policy  would  necessarily  involve 
can  be  formed  by  investigating  the  history  of  the 
water-supply  of  the  large  cities  at  the  East ;  as,  for 
instance,  New  York  and  Boston,  which  depend  on 
storage  reservoirs,  in  the  construction  of  which  (in>- 

i  See  ante,  pp.  32,  33. 


282  GENERAL  REMARKS. 

eluding  the  necessary  mains  and  service  pipes)  many 
millions  have  been  expended.1 

1  The  cost  of  land  taken  for  the  enlargement  of  the  Croton  Reservoir 
and  for  the  new  dam  building  at  Quaker  Bridge  to  hold  back  the  water 
which  this  artificial  lake  will  contain,  has  been  estimated  at  from  $8,000,000 
to  $10,000,000. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTE.  —  Since  the  preceding  pages  were  in  type,  an 
article  has  been  received  entitled  "Artesian  Well  Prospects  in  Eastern 
Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Delaware,"  by  N.  H.  Darton.  (See  "  Transac- 
tions of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,"  Virginia  Beach 
Meeting,  February,  1894.)  In  this  article  it  is  said  that  "the  success  of 
a  number  of  wells,  scattered  widely  over  the  middle  Atlantic  coastal  plain 
region,  indicates  in  itself  the  strong  probability  of  the  existence  of  subter- 
ranean waters  throughout  the  region."  Considerable  information  is  given 
by  Mr.  Darton  with  reference  to  the  geological  character  of  the  coastal 
plain  on  which  these  wells  have  been  bored,  the  conditions  being  somewhat 
similar  to  those  which  have  been  described  in  the  present  volume  as  char- 
acterizing the  Southern  Atlantic  and  Gulf  Coast.  There  are  beds  of  sand 
and  gravel,  alternating  with  clays,  which  are  of  various  ages,  from  Creta- 
ceous to  Recent,  and  these  rest  on  a  floor  of  granitic  and  gneissic  rocks, 
which  has  a  gentle  slope  to  the  east.  A  few  of  the  Artesian  wells  which 
have  been  bored  are  described  as  affording  abundant  water,  "but  their 
number  at  present  is  very  limited."  There  is  great  need,  it  is  said,  all 
over  the  coastal  region,  of  purer  and  more  abundant  supplies  of  water. 
Reference  may  also  be  made  to  the  New  Jersey  Geological  Reports  for 
the  years  1889  to  1892,  in  each  of  which  there  is  information  given  in  re- 
gard to  wells  of  various  kinds  in  that  State,  where  the  subject  of  water- 
supply  from  this  source  seems  to  have  begun,  within  the  past  few  years, 
to  excite  considerable  attention.  In  general,  the  details  which  are  given 
in  regard  to  the  quantity  and  the  quality  of  the  water  which  these  wells 
furnish  are  very  meagre.  As  might  .be  expected  from  the  geological 
conditions  of  the  region,  the  volume  of  water  is  never  very  large,  and  in 
most  cases  the  wells  are  not  what  could  properly  be  called  "Artesian," 
pumping  being  necessary. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


A. 


LATEST  STATISTICS  OF  IMMIGRATION,  WITH  ADDITIONAL 
REMARKS  ON  IMMIGRATION  IN  GENERAL,  AND  ON  THE 
PRESENT  STATUS  OF  THE  CHINESE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


tabular  statement  on  the  following  page  is  a  continuation 
±.  of  that  on  a  preceding  one,1  and  brings  the  statistics  of  im- 
migration into  the  United  States  down  to  the  middle  of  the  year 
1894,  with  a  detailed  statement  of  the  various  nationalities  repre- 
sented; and  to  make  this  more  complete,  the  figures  are  given  for 
each  month  of  the  current  year. 

The  number  of  immigrants  arriving  on  our  shores  during  the 
year  1893  was  large,  as  will  be  seen,  although  somewhat  less  than 
in  the  year  1892;  but  it  was  much  less  than  it  was  in  the  year 
1882,  when  the  figures  reached  a  maximum  of  788,992,  although 
more  than  it  was  in  1885,  1886,  1887,  1889,  or  1890. 

The  reasons  for  these  very  considerable  fluctuations  in  the  num- 
ber of  immigrants  cannot  usually  be  stated  in  a  very  satisfactory 
manner:  they  depend  on  varying  conditions  in  the  countries  from 
which  the  immigrants  come,  as  well  as  in  that  to  which  they  are 
attracted  and  where  they  hope  to  make  a  new  home.  In  the  case 
of  the  present  year  the  very  considerable  falling  off  in  the  immi- 
gration indicated  by  the  figures  of  the  first  half  of  the  year,  which 
sum  up  only  a  little  more  than  one  fourth  of  those  of  the  year 
1893,  and  only  about  one  fifth  of  those  for  the  year  1892,  must 
without  doubt  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  the  unfavorable  con- 
dition of  things  in  this  country,  into  the  nature  and  causes  of  which 
it  is  not  necessary  here  to  inquire.  The  movement  of  immigrants 
from  a  foreign  land  is  influenced  largely  by  the  more  or  less  favor- 
able reports  of  friends  or  relatives  who  have  already  established 
themselves  in  the  country  toward  which  their  thoughts  are  in- 

1  See  ante,  p.  18. 


286 


APPENDIX. 


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IMMIGRATION.  287 

dined.  Any  important  change  in  the  amount  of  demand  for  labor, 
or  any  other  circumstance  likely  to  affect  the  success  of  new-comers, 
is  quickly  made  known  at  the  home  of  the  intending  emigrant, 
who,  thus  advised,  either  relinquishes  his  plan  altogether,  or  post- 
pones his  departure  for  a  time.  In  the  case  of  the  present  year,  at 
all  events,  there  has  been  no  change  of  any  importance  in  the 
condition  of  things  likely  to  influence  emigration  in  the  countries 
from  which  our  immigrants  come,  so  that  it  seems  to  be  only  causes 
originating  here  which  have  reduced  the  figures  to  so  considerable 
an  extent  as  is  shown  in  the  table  given  above. 

The  character  of  the  immigration,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
nationalities  represented,  did  not  differ  much  in  1893  from  what 
it  had  been  in  the  years  1890  and  1891,  so  that  the  remarks  hereto- 
fore made1  still  hold  good.  The  immigration  from  the  United 
Kingdom  on  the  whole  is  slowly  decreasing;  that  from  Ireland, 
however,  remained  at  very  nearly  the  same  figure  during  the  years 
1890  to  1893;  while  a  falling  off  in  the  number  from  Germany  in 
1893,  as  compared  with  1892,  is  quite  marked.  Italy  furnished 
about  the  same  number  in  1893  as  in  the  previous  year,  while 
from  Russia  came  only  half  as  many.  The  figures  for  the  first 
half  of  1894,  making  allowance  for  their  diminished  number,  as 
already  noticed,  do  not  indicate  any  considerable  change  in  the 
nationality  of  the  immigration  as  having  occurred  during  that 
short  interval. 

The  question  of  Chinese  immigration  has  been  before  Congress 
repeatedly  since  the  passage  of  the  act  excluding  them  entirely 
(with  few  exceptions,  and  under  certain  strict  regulations,  as  pre- 
viously stated2),  but  up  to  the  present  time  no  essential  change 
has  been  made  in  their  status. 

The  history  of  legislation  and  of  judicial  action  relating  to  the 
question  of  the  exclusion  of  the  Chinese  from  the  United  States  is 
briefly  as  follows.  The  Congressional  acts  of  1888  aimed  at  entirely 
excluding  the  Chinese  from  this  country,  although  those  who  were 
already  here  when  those  acts  were  passed  were  allowed  to  remain. 
The  number  in  the  country,  however,  did  not  appear  to  diminish 
rapidly  enough  to  suit  the  views  of  the  opponents  of  Chinese  im- 
migration, and  it  was  assumed  (there  being  no  positive  information 
on  the  subject  available)  that  the  places  of  those  who  had  died  or 
who  had  returned  to  China  in  consequence  of  the  manifest  dislike 
of  their  race  on  the  part  of  the  majority  of  the  citizens  of  those 
States  where  Chinamen  are  chiefly  located,  had  been  surrepti- 
1  See  ante,  pp.  18,  19.  2  See  ante,  p.  23. 


288  APPENDIX. 

tiously  taken  by  others  of  their  race  who  had  obtained  an  entrance 
into  the  country  in  spite  of  the  laws  by  which  this  had  been  pro- 
hibited.1 

Agitation  was  therefore  begun  in  Congress,  and,  in  spite  of  very 
strong  opposition  from  the  Eastern  States,  a  law  was  passed,  and 
approved  May  5,  1892,  which  is  generally  known  as  the  Geary 
law.  Under  the  provisions  of  this  Act,  which  is  entitled  "An 
Act  to  prohibit  the  coming  of  Chinese  into  the  United  States," 
every  "  Chinese  person  or  person  of  Chinese  descent  convicted  and 
adjudged  to  be  not  lawfully  entitled  to  be  or  remain  in  the  United 
States  shall  be  imprisoned  at  hard  labor  for  a  period  of  not  exceed- 
ing one  year  and  thereafter  removed  from  the  United  States." 
Moreover,  every  Chinaman  in  the  country  is  required  to  prove  that 
he  is  lawfully  entitled  to  remain  here,  that  is,  that  he  was  here 
prior  to  the  passage  of  the  acts  of  1888,  and  to  take  out  a  certificate 
of  residence  to  that  effect:  those  found  here  without  this  certifi- 
cate after  the  expiration  of  one  year  from  the  passage  of  the  act  of 
1892  were  to  be  adjudged  unlawfully  in  the  country,  and  to  be 
imprisoned  and  deported  accordingly. 

Many  friends  of  the  Chinese,  however,  relying  on  the  treaties 
existing  between  China  and  the  United  States,  believed  the  Geary 
law  to  be  unconstitutional,  and,  encouraged  by  these  and  by  the 
managers  of  the  immigration  business  at  San  Francisco,  the  Chinese 
in  this  country  very  generally  refused  compliance  with  the  law 
requiring  registration.  In  consequence  of  this,  and  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  Congress  had  made  only  a  very  insufficient  appropriation 
to  carry  out  the  project  of  deporting  the  Chinese,  the  authorities  at 
Washington  assumed  the  responsibility  of  neglecting  the  pro- 
vision of  the  Geary  law,  or  at  least  of  delaying  action  until  the 
constitutionality  of  that  law  had  been  investigated  by  the  Supreme 
Court.  A  case  was,  however,  very  speedily  made  up  and  submitted 
to  that  tribunal,  by  which  it  was  decided,  May  15,  1893,  that  the 
law  was  constitutional.  The  difficulty  with  regard  to  the  provid- 

1  Mr.  Geary,  author  of  the  "  Geary  law,"  made  the  following  statement  (in 
an  article  in  the  North  American  Review  for  July,  1893,  Vol.  CLVIL,  p.  60) : 
"  It  is  claimed  that  the  Act  of  1892  was  unnecessary,  because  more  Chinese  were 
leaving  the  country  than  entered  it,  and  the  number  entering  and  leaving  the 
port  of  San  Francisco  is  cited  to  show  that  48,000  more  Chinese  left  the  United 
States  than  entered  it  during  the  past  decade.  But  the  census  shows  the  false- 
ness of  this  argument.  In  1880  there  were  105,000  Chinese  in  the  United  States  ; 
in  1890  there  were  106,000,  or  instead  of  decreasing  48,000  the  number  had 
actually  increased.  The  only  conclusion  deducible  is  that  49,000  entered  in 
defiance  of  our  laws." 


IMMIGRATION.  289 

ing  of  the  funds  necessary  to  pay  the  expenses  of  deportation,  how- 
ever, had  not  been  overcome,  and  the  Chinese  still  remained  in  this 
country.  Meantime  Congress  passed  another  act,  which  was  ap- 
proved November  3,  1893,  by  which  certain  not  specially  important 
changes  were  made  in  the  act  of  1892,  and  the  limit  of  time  after 
which  deportation  was  to  take  place  was  fixed  at  six  months  after 
the  passage  of  this  new  amendatory  act.1 

The  time  of  enforcing  the  Geary  law,  as  thus  prolonged,  has 
already  arrived,  and  a  considerable  number  of  Chinese  have  com- 
plied with  its  provisions,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  business 
of  deportation  has  begun.  In  the  absence  of  official  information 
in  regard  to  this  matter,  it  may  be  assumed  that  lack  of  funds 
applicable  to  this  special  purpose  stands  in  the  way  of  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  requirements  of  the  Geary  law. 

In  the  mean  time,  however,  a  new  treaty  has  been  negotiated 
between  China  and  the  United  States,  which,  after  being  sev- 
eral months  before  the  Senate,  was  confirmed  August  13,  1894. 
According  to  the  provisions  of  this  treaty,  the  coming  to  the  United 
States  of  Chinese  laborers  is  absolutely  prohibited  for  a  period  of 
ten  years  from  the  time  of  the  ratification  of  the  treaty.  The 
exceptions  of  this  absolute  prohibition  are  chiefly  that  it  shall  not 
apply  to  the  return  to  the  United  States  of  any  "  registered  Chinese 
laborer  who  has  a  lawful  wife,  child,  or  parent  "  in  this  country,  or 
"  property  therein  of  the  value  of  $1,000  or  debts  of  like  amount 
due  him  and  pending  settlement."  The  provisions  of  the  treaty, 
moreover,  "shall  not  affect  the  rights  at  present  enjoyed  by  Chi- 
nese subjects  being  officials,  teachers,  students,  merchants,  or 
travellers  for  curiosity  or  pleasure,  but  not  laborers,  coming  to  the 
United  States,  and  residing  therein."  Furthermore,  it  is  agreed  by 
the  terms  of  the  treaty,  "that  Chinese  laborers,  or  Chinese  of 
any  other  class,  either  permanently  or  temporarily  residing  in  the 
United  States,  shall  have  for  the  protection  of  their  persons  and 
property  all  rights  that  are  given  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
to  citizens  of  the  most  favored  nations,  excepting  the  right  to  be- 
come naturalized  citizens."  And  the  government  of  the  United 
States  affirms  its  obligations  to  exert  all  its  power  to  secure  protec- 
tion to  the  persons  and  property  of  all  Chinese  subjects  in  the 
United  States. 

1  While  the  provision  of  the  Geary  law  authorizing  the  imprisonment  of  the 
Chinese  for  the  crime  of  being  in  this  country  was  not  formally  repealed  by  the 
amendatory  act,  no  mention  is  made  of  anything  else  than  deportation  in  it. 

19 


290  APPENDIX. 


B. 


BRIEF  DISCUSSION  OF  THE  QUESTION  WHETHER  CHANGES 
OF  CLIMATE  CAN  BE  BROUGHT  ABOUT  BY  THE  AGENCY 
OF  MAN,  AND  ON  SECULAR  CLIMATIC  CHANGES  IN  GEN- 
ERAL, WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THE  ARID  REGION 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

OF  the  various  phases  which  the  discussion  of  the  irrigation 
question  in  the  Far  West  during  the  past  few  years  has 
assumed,  one  of  the  most  interesting  is  the  belief  very  generally 
felt  and  expressed  throughout  that  part  of  the  country  where  the 
rainfall  is  insufficient,  that  the  climate  of  that  region  is  undergoing 
a  change  for  the  better  as  regards  this  most  serious  defect.  This 
idea  is  not  only  very  generally  advocated  by  the  settlers  themselves, 
but  it  has  received  support  not  only  from  government  irrigation 
officials,  but  also  from  those  who  from  their  connection  with  educa- 
tional and  scientific  institutions  might  naturally  be  supposed  to  be 
qualified  to  speak  with  authority  in  regard  to  this  matter.  It 
requires,  however,  but  a  very  limited  amount  of  study  of  climatic 
questions  to  become  convinced  that  there  is  no  subject  in  regard  to 
which  the  public  is  more  easily  deceived,  or  more  willing  to  allow 
itself  to  be  deceived,  than  that  of  the  ability  of  man  to  control 
climate.  There  are  certainly  few  if  any  subjects  which  have  been 
so  much  discussed,  and  about  which  such  positive  statements  have 
been  made  and  theories  advocated  by  those  who  were  not  in  posses- 
sion of  any  facts  on  which  to  base  them,  as  this  very  question  of  the 
possibility  of  the  modification  of  the  climatic  conditions  of  a  greater 
or  less  extent  of  the  earth's  surface  through  the  agency  of  its 
inhabitants. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  desire  to  generalize  on  this  subject  with 
absolutely  no  knowledge  of  that  which  would  give  to  such  gen- 
eralizations any  value,  Gibbon's  remarks  on  the  changes  which  have 
taken  place  in  the  climate  of  Northern  Europe  within  the  historical 
period,  and  on  the  causes  of  the  difference  in  the  temperature  of 
regions  on  the  same  parallel  of  latitude  on  the  two  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  may  be  cited.  This  painstaking  and  ordinarily  so  accu- 
rate writer  on  historical  subjects  in  general  had  absolutely  no 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  291 

knowledge  of  the  real  causes  of  the  difference  between  the  climates 
of  Europe  and  Eastern  North  America.  His  ideas  on  this  subject 
will  become  apparent  on  reading  the  following  quotation  from  what 
he  says  when  discussing  the  influence  of  the  climate  of  ancient 
Germany  over  the  minds  and  bodies  of  the  natives  :  "  In  the  time 
of  Caesar,  the  reindeer,  as  well  as  the  elk  and  wild  bull,  was  a 
native  of  the  FTercynian  forest,  which  then  overshadowed  a  great 
part  of  Germany  and  Poland,  but  at  present  he  cannot  subsist, 
much  less  multiply,  in  any  country  south  of  the  Baltic.  The 
modern  improvements  sufficiently  explain  the  causes  of  the  dimi- 
nution of  the  cold.  These  immense  woods  have  been  gradually 
cleared,  which  intercepted  from  the  earth  the  rays  of  the  sun.  The 
morasses  have  been  drained,  and,  in  proportion  as  the  soil  has  been 
cultivated,  the  air  has  become  more  temperate.  Canada,  at  this 
day,  is  an  exact  picture  of  ancient  Germany.  Although  situated 
in  the  same  parallel  with  the  finest  provinces  of  France  and  Eng- 
land, that  country  experiences  the  most  rigorous  cold.  The  rein- 
deer are  very  numerous,  the  ground  is  covered  with  deep  and 
lasting  snow,  and  the  great  river  of  St.  Lawrence  is  regularly 
frozen,  in  a  season  when  the  waters  of  the  Seine  and  the  Thames 
are  usually  free  from  ice."  l 

Not  long  after  the  last  volume  of  Gibbon's  "  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire "  had  been  issued,  the  climate  of  the 
United  States  began  to  be  written  about  with  some  detail,  for  that 
which  had  been  published  prior  to  the  appearance  of  Volney's  im- 

i  See  "  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  Vol.  I.  Chap.  IX.  The 
order  of  the  sentences  has  been  slightly  changed  in  the  quotation  for  the  sake  of 
clearness.  The  problem  as  stated  by  Gibbon  involves  two  considerations  of  a 
very  different  order.  The  difference  between  the  climates  of  the  two  countries 
on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  North  Atlantic  depends  on  various  natural  causes 
easily  understood,  and  these  must  have  always  been  in  operation,  or,  at  least, 
they  have  not  essentially  changed  in  character  since  the  continental  land  masses 
occupied  the  same  position  and  had  the  same  area  which  they  now  have.  (See 
the  present  writer's  work,  "The  United  States,"  etc.,  pp.  137-139.)  The  former 
existence  of  various  arctic  mammals,  among  which  the  reindeer  is  included,  over 
a  part  of  Central  Europe,  and  even  as  far  south  as  Southern  France,  is  a  prob- 
lem of  another  order,  the  solution  of  which  connects  itself  with  the  complicated 
conditions  of  the  so-called  "  Glacial  Epoch,"  the  precise  character  and  causes  of 
which  have  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  made  out.  That  man  was  in  existence  at 
the  time  of  the  spread  of  the  reindeer  over  Northern  Germany  is  not  denied,  but 
no  geologist,  at  the  present  time,  claims  that  human  agency  had  any  share  in 
bringing  about  that  change  of  the  climate  of  Northern  Europe  which  led  to  the 
disappearance  or  retreat  to  the  North  of  the  reindeer,  arctic  fox,  and  various 
other  species,  which  are  now  only  met  with  in  high  northern  latitudes. 


292  APPENDIX. 

portant  work 1  was  exceedingly  fragmentary  and  imperfect.  There 
seems  to  have  been  a  striking  unanimity  of  opinion  among  these 
earlier  writers,  however,  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  things  in 
this  country  as  respects  the  changing  character  of  its  climate.  It 
was  almost  universally  believed  that  the  winters  were  becoming 
less  severe,  the  summers  warmer,  and  the  climate  in  general  more 
variable,  but  on  the  whole  decidedly  more  favorable,  than  it  was 
when  the  country  first  began  to  be  settled  by  the  whites.  The 
current  ideas  on  this  subject  are  well  exemplified  in  the  following 
quotation  from  Jefferson's  Virginia:2  "A  change  in  our  climate 
is  taking  place  very  sensibly.  Both  heats  and  colds  are  becoming 
much  more  moderate  within  the  memory  even  of  the  middle-aged. 
Snows  are  less  frequent  and  less  deep.  .  .  .  The  elderly  inform  me 
that  the  earth  used  to  be  covered  with  snow  about  three  months 
every  year.  The  rivers,  which  then  seldom  failed  to  freeze  over 
in  the  course  of  the  winter,  scarcely  ever  do  so  now."  Volney 
himself  tells  the  same  story:  "  Every  where,  throughout  the  entire 
extent  of  my  journey,  whether  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  or  in  the 
West,  I  collected  testimony  to  the  same  effect,  everywhere  I  heard 
the  same  story;  longer  summers,  later  setting  in  of  autumn,  har- 
vest similarly  delayed;  winter  shorter,  snows  not  so  deep,  nor 
lasting  so  long,  but  cold  spells  not  less  severe;  and  in  all  the  new 
settlements  they  have  described  these  changes  not  as  being  gradual 
and  progressive,  but  rapid  and  almost  instantaneous,  in  proportion 
as  the  country  is  cleared  [proportionnes  a  1'etendue  des  deboise- 
ments]."  Equally  certain  were  various  writers  on  the  climate  of 
this  country  that  the  rainfall  was  diminishing.  Mease,  in  his 
"  Geological  Account  of  the  United  States,"  says:  "  Within  a 
few  years  the  quantity  of  rain  has  certainly  diminished."  And  a 
little  farther  on  he  adds:  "It  is  highly  probable  that  our  climate 
is  undergoing  a  change  in  regard  to  the  quantity  of  rain." 

That  these  presumed  climatic  changes  had  been  brought  about 
chiefly,  if  not  solely,  by  cutting  down  the  forests,  seems  to  have 
been  generally  admitted  by  those  who  attempted  to  offer  any  expla- 
nation of  this  most  remarkable  phenomenon. 

Views  very  similar  to   those   adopted  by  Volney  were,   just  a 

1  "  Tableau  du  Climat  et  du  Sol  des  Etats-Unis,"  a  work  containing  observa- 
tions made  by  the  author  during  a  three  years'  residence  in  this  country,  from 
1795  to  1798. 

2  Written,  as  the  author  states,  in  1781,  and  somewhat  enlarged  and  modified 
in  the  winter  of  1 782  ;  but  the  edition  from  which  the  quotation  here  offered  was 
taken  bears  the  date  of  1787. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  293 

century  ago,  advocated  by  Samuel  Williams  in  his  History  of  Ver- 
mont, from  which  indeed  the  former  obtained  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  information  contained  in  his  work  on  the  climate  of  the 
United  States.1  Mr.  Williams  maintained  that,  although  it  could 
not  be  determined,  for  want  of  meteorological  observations,  whether 
there  have  been  any  alteration  in  the  annual  quantity  of  rain  in 
any  part  of  America,  yet  a  change  had  been  manifested  "in  the 
apparent  decrease  of  the  snow  in  all  the  ancient  cultivated  parts  of 
the  United  States. "  "Snows,"  he  says,  "are  neither  so  fre- 
quent, deep,  or  of  so  long  continuance,  as  they  were  formerly: 
And  they  are  yet  declining  very  fast  in  their  number,  quantity, 
and  duration."  He  further  considers  it  proved  that  "the  east 
winds,  which  half  a  century  ago  seldom  reached  farther  than  thirty 
or  forty  miles  from  the  sea  shore,  have  now  advanced  as  far  as  the 
mountains,  which  are  generally  eighty  or  a  hundred  miles  from  the 
ocean."  That  these  changes  of  climate  are  "  much  connected  with 
and  greatly  accelerated  by  the  cultivation  of  the  country  cannot  be 
doubted."  "But,  "he  wisely  adds,  "whether  this  cause  is  suf- 
ficient to  account  for  all  the  phenomena  which  have  attended  the 
change  of  climate  in  the  various  parts  of  the  earth  seems  to  be 
uncertain." 

The  above  citations  from  works  published  at  the  time  when  the 
climate  of  this  country  first  began  to  be  written  about  are  given 
that  it  may  be  distinctly  seen  at  how  early  a  period  positive  asser- 
tions began  to  be  made  in  regard  to  the  changes  which  were 

1  Williams's  "Natural  and  Civil  History  of  Vermont"  was  published  at 
Walpole,  N.  H.,  in  1794,  and  a  second  edition  in  two  volumes  appeared  in  1809, 
which  was  printed  at  Burlington,  Vt.  This  later  and  larger  edition  con- 
tains, in  an  Appendix,  "  Observations  on  the  Change  of  Climate  in  Europe  and 
other  Places."  In  this  discussion  Mr.  Williams  endeavors  to  show  that  the  cli- 
mate "  in  the  course  of  several  centuries  has  remarkably  changed  at  Palestine, 
in  Italy,  around  the  Euxine  Sea,  at  the  Alps,  and  throughout  all  Germany." 
Furthermore,  he  feels  justified  in  fixing  with  some  approach  to  exactness  the 
amount  of  the  change  of  temperature  which  has  taken  place  in  that  part  of  the 
world,  for  he  proceeds  to  state  that  "  through  all  this  vast  extent  of  country 
the  climate  has  now  become  sixteen  or  seventeen  degrees  warmer  than  it  was 
eighteen  centuries  ago."  After  discussing  and  commenting  on  this  statement,  for 
proof  of  the  truth  of  which  he  mainly  relies  on  the  authority  of  Gibbon,  sup- 
ported by  that  of  Moses,  whom  he  regards  as  having  been  the  author  of  the  Book 
of  Job,  as  also  by  that  of  David  the  Psalmist,  he  inquires  "  Whether  cultivation 
is  sufficient  to  account  for  these  changes  ?  "  To  this  question  he  furnishes  no 
answer,  but  adds:  "  For  whatever  the  cause  may  be,  the  fact  seems  to  be  certain, 
the  heat  of  all  that  part  of  the  earth,  of  which  we  have  any  exact  accounts,  has 
been  increasing  from  the  earliest  ages." 


294  APPENDIX. 

believed  to  have  taken  place,  although  but  an  extremely  small 
portion  of  our  vast  territory  had  been  invaded  by  the  white  man, 
while  even  in  the  most  densely  populated  areas  meteorological 
observations  were  almost  entirely  wanting.  This  tendency  to  gen- 
eralize without  any  sufficient  basis  of  fact  was,  however,  by  no 
means  peculiar  to  this  country.  In  Europe  many  years  ago  specu- 
lations on  climatic  changes  began  to  assume  a  character  which,  to 
a  large  extent,  they  have  maintained  up  to  the  present  time.  The 
removal  of  the  forests  has,  during  the  past  half-century,  again  and 
again  been  declared  to  have  wrought  unutterable  woe  over  a  large 
part  of  the  earth's  surface.  The  undeniable  fact  that  during  the 
historic  period  there  has  been  a  considerable  diminution  in  the 
amount  of  water  flowing  in  rivers  or  standing  in  lakes  in  many 
countries,  and  notably  in  Central  Asia  and  Northern  Africa,  as 
well  as  in  various  parts  of  both  North  and  South  America,  has 
been  repeatedly  commented  on,  and,  almost  without  exception,  the 
cause  of  this  condition  of  things  has  been  declared  in  the  most 
positive  manner  to  have  been  the  destruction  of  the  forests.1 

Within  a  very  few  years,  however,  the  opinions  of  scientific  in- 
vestigators of  climate  have  undergone  a  change.  Few,  if  any,  of 
those  who  have  made  a  thorough  study  of  this  subject  will  now  be 
found  maintaining  that  the  phenomena  of  desiccation  can  be  ex- 
plained by  appealing  to  deforestation  as  their  cause.3  The  news- 
papers and  popular  writers  in  general,  however,  almost  unanimously 
remain  advocates  of  the  idea  that  man  can  exert  a  powerful  influx 
ence  as  a  controller  of  climate,  and  that  this  nation  is  rapidly 
advancing  toward  ruin  through  " forest  devastation."8 

1  See  the  present  writer's  "  Climatic  Changes,"  in  which  this  subject  is  dis- 
cussed at  considerable  length,  and  a  large  amount  of  evidence  brought  forward 
showing  the  fallacy  of  this  idea,  and  proving  that  this  general  desiccation  began 
in  geological  times  before  the  human  race  made  its  appearance,  and  has  been 
and  is  being  continued  during  the  historic  period,  and  most  certainly  without  any 
reason  to  believe  that  it  has  been  brought  about  by  the  agency  of  man. 

2  See,  for  instance,  the  views  of  Mr.  Newell  in  regard  to  the  cause  of  the 
non-periodic  oscillations  of  lakes  and  rivers,  noticed  on  a  previous  page  (ante, 
p.  239.) 

8  As  an  illustration  of  this,  the  following  may  be  quoted  from  a  popular 
periodical,  published  during  the  present  year :  "  The  results  of  Canadian  wood- 
chopping  made  themselves  felt  in  the  Middle  and  Eastern  States  many  years  ago, 
and  now  the  evil  is  sweeping  across  the  ocean.  Has  Great  Britain  the  same  cli- 
mate that  she  had  not  many  years  ago,  before  forest  denudation  in  Canada  had 
denuded  the  surface  of  the  province  and  given  increased  violence  to  the  storms 
which  crossed  the  Atlantic  ?  The  shores  of  Europe  have,  during  the  past  season, 
shown  the  effects  of  this  improvident  work." 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  295 

The  form  which  the  idea  of  man's  ability  to  control  climate  has 
taken  of  late  years  in  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States  is  that 
which  concerns  us  most  in  connection  with  the  present  work  ;  but 
before  making  an  investigation  of  this  it  will  be  convenient  to  give 
a  rapid  sketch  of  the  development  of  systematic  meteorological 
work  in  this  country,  and  to  inquire  what  light  this  has  thrown  on 
the  question  of  secular  changes  of  climate  in  the  region  over  which 
observations  of  this  kind  have  extended. 

A  really  serviceable  thermometer  did  not  exist  until  Fahrenheit 
invented  his  in  1714  ;  but,  in  point  of  fact,  thermometric  observa- 
tions made  prior  to  about  the  year  1822  are  of  no  value  for  use  in 
any  investigation  such  as  that  of  a  secular  change  of  the  climate 
at  any  specified  locality.1  Observations  of  rainfall,  of  the  real 
accuracy  of  which  we  have  little  knowledge,  but  which  we  cannot 
so  summarily  reject  as  we  can  the  earlier  thermometric  ones,  seem  to 
have  been  begun  at  Charleston,  S.  C.,  as  early  as  1738,  and  there 
is  a  continuous  series  from  that  year  to  1759,  from  which  time 
on  there  is  a  break  lasting  until  1840.  The  longest  consecutive 
series  of  rainfall  observations  in  this  country  is  that  taken  at  New 
Bedford,  Mass.,  beginning  in  1813.  At  New  Haven,  Conn.,  there 
was  a  continuous  record  from  1804  to  1829,  and  at  Brunswick,  Me., 
from  1808  to  1818  ;  also  at  Philadelphia  from  1824  on.  At  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  and  at  Marietta,  Ohio,  the  record  is  nearly  continuous 
from  1818  on.  This  list  comprises  nearly  all  the  stations  for  which 
a  long  continuous  record  of  the  rainfall  is  available,  either  for  the 
later  years  of  the  past  century  or  the  earlier  of  the  present. 

In  1825  the  first  regular  systematic  series  of  meteorological 
observations  in  any  part  of  the  United  States  began  to  be  taken : 
this  work  was  under  the  supervision  of  the  New  York  State  Uni- 
versity. In  1836  the  system  of  meteorological  observations  at  the 
United  States  military  posts,  under  the  direction  of  the  Medical 
Department  of  the  Army,  was  begun.  In  1849  the  system  of  obser- 
vations by  volunteers,  planned  and  directed  by  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  was  inaugurated.  In  1870  the  system  of  meteorologi- 
cal observations  and  of  storm  warnings,  forming  a  part  of  the 

1  "  It  was  in  1822  that  Bellani,  a  Milanese  observer,  recognized  the  fact  that 
all  thermometers  are  liable  to  a  change  exactly  such  as  would  result  if  the  bulb 
began  to  grow  smaller  soon  after  it  was  blown,  and  continued  to  do  so  for  a  long 
time.  Of  course  observations  made  previous  to  this  discovery,  and  indeed  all 
observations  made  without  special  examination,  from  time  to  time,  of  the 
accuracy  of  the  zero-point,  are  of  no  value  for  use  in  any  such  inquiry  as  that 
now  before  us."  (Climatic  Changes,  p.  224.) 


296  APPENDIX. 

work  of  the  Signal  Service  of  the  United  States  was  organized, 
and  at  the  present  time  this  is  the  source  from  which  most  of  our 
statistics  of  temperature,  rainfall,  and  of  climatic  conditions  in 
general  are  derived.  But  there  is,  in  addition,  a  small  amount 
of  information  to  be  obtained  in  various  other  ways. 

The  meteorological  material  thus  available  for  an  investigation 
of  the  kind  here  contemplated  is  far  from  being  homogeneous,  or  of 
the  same  degree  of  accuracy  throughout.  Observations  taken  at 
the  great  astronomical  observatories  by  the  assistants,  who  are 
usually  practiced  observers,  are  likely  to  be  trustworthy,  but  these 
are  few  in  number  and  of  short  duration.  Observations,  especially 
of  rainfall,  made  in  connection  with  the  various  sources  of  water- 
supply  for  our  principal  cities  may  perhaps  be  considered  the  most 
valuable  of  all,  since  in  these  localities  such  records  are  of  the 
greatest  practical  importance,  and  are  likely,  therefore,  to  be  most 
carefully  attended  to.  This  will  in  time  become  a  source  of  in- 
formation of  great  value  ;  but  at  present  series  of  this  kind  are 
short  and  not  numerous. 

The  observations  at  the  United  States  military  posi/s  seem  to  the 
present  writer  the  least  reliable  of  all,  and  this  statement  is  based 
on  personal  knowledge  acquired  at  visits  to  various  posts  in  former 
years,  and  also  on  the  fact  that  the  observations  were  —  and  prob- 
ably still  are  —  not  made  by  the  officers  themselves,  but  usually  by 
the  hospital  stewards,  to  whom  this  addition  to  their  daily  duties 
is,  with  few  exceptions,  decidedly  unwelcome,  and  who  certainly 
have  no  scientific  interest  in  the  work.1 

The  value  of  the  records  of  the  volunteer  Smithsonian  observers 
is,  of  course,  very  different  in  different  cases.  Some,  no  doubt, 
worked  conscientiously  ;  others  did  not,  as  is  shown  by  the  very 
great  discrepancies  between  their  results  and  those  of  other  ob- 
servers in  the  immediate  neighborhood.  The  present  writer  can 
testify  from  personal  knowledge  that  at  some  stations  the  instru- 
ments have  been  defective  and  the  observations  slovenly.  In  this 
connection  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  negligence  or  careless- 
ness in  keeping  the  record  of  the  precipitation  would  be  most  likely 
to  furnish  results  too  low  in  value,  so  that  we  might  expect 
(assuming  what  is  in  general  likely  to  be  true,  namely,  that  the 

1  This  is  particularly  unfortunate  in  connection  with  the  determination  of 
secular  changes  in  the  climate  of  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States,  because 
almost  all  the  earlier  material  which  could  possibly  be  made  available  for  this 
purpose  is  that  coming  from  the  military  posts. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  297 

idea  of  the  necessity  of  accuracy  has  gained  ground  in  modern 
times)  to  find  that  there  has  been,  in  some  localities,  an  apparent 
increase  in  the  amount  of  precipitation,  which,  however,  is  really 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  later  observations  have  been  taken  with 
more  care  than  were  the  earlier  ones. 

Another  important  fact  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  considering 
whether  our  present  mass  of  statistics  is  available  for  a  discussion 
of  possible  secular  change  of  climate.  It  is  this:  the  observations 
of  rainfall  taken  under  various  systems  or  for  various  institutions 
have  not  been  made  with  gauges  placed  at  a  uniform  height  above 
the  ground.  At  the  United  States  military  posts  the  gauges  were 
required  to  be  elevated  eight  feet  above  the  surface;  but  the  Smith- 
sonian observers  were  directed  to  place  theirs  at  a  height  of  six 
inches.  The  later  observations  of  the  Signal  Service,  in  fact,  are 
taken  at  all  elevations  from  a  few  inches  up  to  162  feet,  and  the 
height  of  the  gauge  is  not  always  given  in  the  published  records. 
Here  is  an  element  of  uncertainty  introduced  which  entirely  vi- 
tiates any  conclusions  which  one  might  be  inclined  to  draw  from 
the  comparison  of  records  of  rainfall  in  various  localities.  That  the 
amount  collected  in  the  gauges  will  be  less  in  proportion  as  the  in- 
strument is  elevated  above  the  ground  —  up,  at  least,  to  a  certain 
height  —  would  be  admitted  by  all:  but  that  this  amount  could 
be  estimated  and  allowed  for  without  long  continued  observations 
at  each  locality  with  gauges  at  various  elevations,  is  extremely 
improbable. 

There  is  another  great  difficulty  in  regard  to  rainfall  which 
relates  especially  to  our  Western  arid  belt.  It  is  this  :  that  the 
smaller  the  rainfall  the  more  irregular  it  is.  In  San  Francisco  the 
rainfall  of  one  year  is  recorded  as  having  been  seven  times  as  great 
as  that  of  another;  in  New  England  in  the  driest  recorded  year  it  is 
about  one  half  that  of  the  wettest.  In  very  dry  regions  the  rainfall 
is  extraordinarily  capricious.  "  Cloud-bursts  "  are  of  by  no  means 
uncommon  occurrence.  One  such  event,  covering  perhaps  only  a 
few  square  miles,  but  happening  at  a  locality  where  a  rain-gauge 
is  kept,  would  probably  hopelessly  vitiate  the  record  for  that  region, 
for  an  amount  of  rain  might  fall  in  a  few  minutes  more  than  equal 
to  the  ordinary  annual  average  of  the  region.1 

1  Occurrences  of  this  kind  are  more  frequent  in  the  arid  region  than  is  com- 
monly supposed.  The  present  writer  has  more  than  once  visited  localities  where 
cloud-bursts  have  recently  occurred.  In  one  case,  on  the  western  border  of 
Nevada,  a  family  riding  in  a  buggy  was  drowned  from  sheer  inability  to  drive 


298  APPENDIX. 

All  the  meteorological  material  which  had  been  collected  at  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  in  the  manner  indicated  above  was,  in 
1870,  placed  in  the  hands  of  Charles  A.  Schott,  for  examination 
and  elaboration,  and  the  first  results  of  this  investigation  were  laid 
before  the  public  in  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge, 
bearing  the  date  of  March,  1872. l  This  work,  which  was  devoted 
to  the  subject  of  precipitation,  was  soon  followed  by  a  second 
volume,  which  related  to  temperature.  This  was  issued  in  1876. 2 

In  1875  a  new  edition  of  the  volume  on  rainfall  was  determined 
on,  and  Mr.  Schott  was  authorized  to  include  in  it  "all  the  material 
derived  from  the  direct  labors  of  the  Institution,  together  with  all 
the  accessible  material  from  other  sources  up  to  the  time  of  prepa- 
ration for  the  press."  As  a  consequence  of  this,  this  later 
volume  devoted  to  the  rainfall  was  "  enriched  with  the  addition  of 
eight  years  of  observations,  from  the  beginning  of  1867  to  the  end 
of  1874,  for  the  greater  portion  of  the  stations,  and  in  some  instances 
includes  observations  to  the  end  of  1876."  3 

fast  enough  to  escape  the  rush  of  water  through  the  canon  which  they  were 
trying  to  cross.  In  another  place,  not  far  distant  from  this,  a  stamp-mill  was 
torn  to  pieces,  and  a  steam-boiler  weighing  five  tons  carried  by  the  raging  torrent 
two  miles  down  the  bed  of  a  stream  which  a  few  minutes  before  was  almost 
entirely  dry. 

1  The  full  title  of  this  work  is  "  Tables  and  Results  of  the  Precipitation,  in 
Rain  and  Snow,  in  the  United  States :  and  at  some  Stations  in  adjacent  Parts  of 
North  America,  and  in  Central  and  South  America.     Collected  by  the  Smithso- 
nian Institution,  and  discussed,  under  the  Direction  of  Joseph  Henry,  Secretary. 
By  Charles  A.  Schott,  Assistant  U.  S.  Coast  Survey,"  etc. 

In  the  Introduction  to  this  volume  it  is  said  that  "the  following  memoir  con- 
tains in  tabulated  form  the  abstracts  of  all  the  records  of  observations  of  the 
rainfall  which  have  been  made  from  the  early  settlement  of  this  country  down  to 
the  close  of  the  year  1866,  so  far  as  they  could  be  obtained." 

2  The  following  statement  appears  in  the  "Advertisement,"  signed  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  which  accompanies  Mr.  Schott's  second 
published  volume  of  the  results  of  this  investigation :  "  The  object  now  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  is  to  render  the  results  of  these  observations  accessible  to 
meteorologists  by  their  reduction,  discussion,  and  publication ;  but  to  give  greater 
value  to  this  work  it  has  been  thought  advisable  to  incorporate  in  it  all  accessible 
and  reliable  meteorological  observations  that  have  been   made  in  the  United 
States  since  the  early  settlement  of  the  country."    The  full  title  of  this  volume 
is:  "Tables,  Distribution,  and  Variations  of  the  Atmospheric  Temperature  in 
the  United  States,  and  some   adjacent  Parts  of  America.     Collected  by  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  and  discussed  under  the  Direction  of  Joseph  Henry, 
Secretary." 

8  This  volume,  which  bears  essentially  the  same  title  as  the  preceding  one  on 
the  same  subject,  with  the  addition  of  the  words  "  Second  Edition,"  appeared  in 
May,  1881. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  299 

From  the  manner  in  which  the  materials  utilized  in  these  vol- 
umes were  collected,  and  from  the  well  known  ability  of  the  person 
to  whom  their  elaboration  was  intrusted,  it  is  clear  that  we  have 
here  a  source  of  information  in  regard  to  questions  connected  with 
the  subject  of  the  climate  of  this  country  the  value  and  authority 
of  which  cannot  be  disputed.  Various  important  memoirs  have 
been  published  by  the  Signal  Service  since  the  meteorology  of  the 
United  States  became  a  branch  of  the  public  service,  but  nothing 
has  appeared  which  could  take  the  place  of  Mr.  Schott's  elaborate 
volumes,  of  which  the  only  defect  is  the  unavoidable  one  of 
the  imperfection  of  the  observations,  as  indicated  in  the  preced- 
ing pages.  That,  if  any  rapid  change  were  taking  place  in  the 
climate  of  this  country,  as  so  positively  asserted  by  the  early 
writers  on  this  subject,  some  proofs  of  this  would  have  been  discov- 
ered in  the  working  over  of  observations  extending  from  the  time 
of  its  early  settlement  down  to  as  late  as  the  year  1875  or  1876, 
can  hardly  be  doubted.  At  all  events,  the  results  of  a  systematic 
examination  of  a  long  series  of  records  of  temperature  and  rainfall 
must  necessarily  be  accepted  in  preference  to  random  assertions 
unsupported  by  any  other  testimony  than  that  of  general  statements 
which  have  no  basis  except  the  recollections  of  the  "  elderly"  and 
the  "  middle-aged/ '  Mr.  Schott's  results  may  now,  therefore,  be 
taken  up  for  brief  examination. 

The  subject  of  "  Secular  Variations  of  the  Atmospheric  Temper- 
ature "  was  taken  up  in  the  volume  relating  to  temperature,1  and, 
to  ascertain  what  these  variations  might  have  been,  a  number  of 
stations  were  selected  "  possessing  the  requisite  length  of  series, 
or  from  which  by  proper  combination  from  several  stations  at  no 
great  distance  apart,  such  a  series  could  be  produced  having  as  few 
interruptions  as  possible."  The  stations  thus  selected  for  reduc- 
tion and  combination  embrace  localities  extending  from  Maine  to 
California,  and  the  results  are  exhibited  in  the  form  of  "  curves  of 
secular  change  in  the  mean  annual  temperature."  Of  these  Mr. 
Schott  remarks  that  their  character  "is  that  of  a  series  of  irregular 
waves  representing  a  succession  of  warmer  and  colder  periods,  dur- 
ing which,  however,  the  mean  temperature  deviates  only  about  one 
or  two  degrees,  in  excess  or  defect.  .  .  .  These  undulations,  when 
compared  for  a  number  of  stations  exposed  to  similar  climatological 
conditions,  approach  to  parallelism  over  large  tracts  of  country,  and 


1  See  pages  302-320  of  that  work. 


300  APPENDIX. 

exhibit  considerable  uniformity  in  their  general  character.  .  .  . 
There  is  nothing  in  these  curves  to  countenance  the  idea  of  any 
permanent  change  in  the  climate  having  taken  place,  or  being 
about  to  take  place ;  in  the  last  ninety  years  of  thermometric  records 
the  mean  temperatures  showing  no  indication  of  a  sustained  rise 
or  fall." 

Mr.  Schott  remarks  that  the  degree  of  parallelism  of  the  curves 
is  sufficiently  close  to  warrant  an  additional  consolidation  of  results 
for  a  few  characteristic  stations,  and  for  this  purpose  he  forms 
two  typical  curves,  one  for  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  another  for  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  For  the  former  curve  the  undulations  are 
longer  than  for  the  latter.  The  longer  waves  of  the  Atlantic 
stations  show  principal  maxima  in  1802,  1826,  1846,  and  1865, 
and  principal  minima  in  1785,  1816,  1836,  and  1857,  the  average 
interval  being  about  twenty-two  years.  The  shorter  waves  of  the 
interior  States  show  principal  maxima  in  1827,  1833,  1839,  1845, 
1854,  and  1860,  and  principal  minima  in  1831,  1836,  1843,  1848, 
1856,  and  1867.  These  undulations  are  not  sufficiently  regular  nor 
sufficiently  distinct  to  serve  as  a  basis  of  prediction,  since  they  are 
too  much  mixed  with  subordinate  fluctuations.  All  that  Mr. 
Schott  claims  for  them  is  that  they  are  "a  general  exponent  of 
secular  change."  1 

1  Here  it  becomes  necessary  to  introduce  a  few  remarks  in  regard  to  the 
meaning  of  the  term  "  secular,"  both  as  used  by  Mr.  Schott  in  his  volumes  on 
temperature  and  precipitation,  and  by  others  engaged  in  similar  investigations. 
The  term  "  secular  "  is  properly  used  to  designate  some  phenomenon  continuing 
through  an  indefinite  but  long  period  of  time,  and  which,  so  far  as  known,  is 
not  recurrent  or  periodical.  Thus  the  cooling  of  the  earth,  according  to  the 
theory  generally  adopted  by  geologists,  from  a  condition  of  igneous  fluidity 
is  properly  designated  as  "secular."  It  has  been  going  on  for  an  indefinite 
length  of  time,  and  there  is  no  reason  for  believing  it  to  be  a  recurrent  phe- 
nomenon. As  used  by  astronomers,  however,  in  the  term  "  secular  inequality," 
as  applied  to  the  motion  of  a  planet,  the  meaning  of  the  term  "secular"  is  not 
exactly  the  same  as  that  given  above,  since  this  inequality  is  periodic,  although 
the  period  is  one  of  excessively  long  duration.  Mr.  Schott,  in  his  volume  on 
temperature,  a  synopsis  of  the  principal  results  of  which  has  been  given  above, 
under  the  head  of  "  Secular  Variation  of  the  Atmospheric  Temperature,"  in  point 
of  fact  does  not  attempt  anything  more  than  a  discussion  of  the  periodic  oscilla- 
tions (the  "  Klimaschwankungen "  of  Bruckner),  or,  in  other  words,  recurrent 
changes  of  temperature,  which  are  periodic  but  of  excessively  short  period  as 
compared  with  the  secular  inequality  of  a  planet.  Farther  on,  however,  he  speaks 
of  a  "  permanent  change  "  of  the  climate,  as  mentioned  above,  and  in  such  a  way 
as  to  prove  that  by  this  phrase  he  means  what  with  a  strictly  correct  use  of  the 
word  "  secular  "  would  be  called  a  secular  change,  or  a  permanent,  non-periodic 
increase  or  decrease  of  the  mean  temperature,  not  necessarily  from  year  to  year, 
but  at  all  events  from  age  to  age,  the  fact  that  periodic  oscillations  of  any  or 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  301 

In  the  volume  devoted  to  the  subject  of  precipitation  there  come 
first  the  records  of  the  observations  of  rainfall  at  each  station, 
arranged  so  as  to  show  the  mean  amount  of  precipitation  in  rain 
and  melted  snow  for  each  month  and  season,  and  for  the  year,  as 
well  as  the  length  of  each  series  of  observations,  and  the  time  of 
its  beginning  and  ending.  This  is  followed  by  tables  exhibiting 
the  actual  precipitation  at  each  station  for  every  year  during  which 
observations  were  made.  It  is  from  these  data  that  the  "  rainfall 
charts  "  were  prepared  which  accompany  the  volume,  of  which  there 
are  five,  one  of  which  shows  the  average  annual  precipitation  in  the 
United  States,  while  the  other  four  exhibit  the  seasonal  distribu- 
tion of  the  rainfall,  or  the  average  precipitation  during  the  spring, 
summer,  autumn,  and  winter  months  over  the  same  area. 

There  follows  next  in  order  a  discussion  of  the  "  Annual  Fluctu- 
ation in  the  Rainfall,"  and  by  this  term  is  understood,  as  we  are 
told,  "the  changes  from  month  to  month, "  the  data  for  this  part 
of  the  investigation  having  been  obtained  "by  selecting  those 
stations  where  the  rain  record  extends  over  the  longest  series  of 
years."  From  these  selected  series  of  observations  nine  type- 
curves  of  the  annual  fluctuations,  or  the  distribution  of  the  rainfall 
through  the  year,  were  prepared,  and  the  inspection  of  these  will 
show  at  once  how  very  differently  different  parts  of  the  country  are 
conditioned  in  this  respect.  Thus,  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  from 
Portland  to  Washington,  there  are  three  nearly  equal  maxima, 
which  occur  about  the  middle  of  May,  of  August,  and  of  December, 
and  there  is  one  principal  minimum  about  the  beginning  of  Feb- 
ruary, while  the  range  between  the  monthly  values  is  small.  On 
the  Pacific  coast,  however,  there  is  a  most  decided  minimum 
(amounting  in  fact  along  a  large  extent  of  the  coast  to  an  almost 
entire  absence  of  rainfall)  during  the  summer  months,  and  a  well- 
marked  maximum  late  in  December,  the  range  being  excessive. 

The  question  whether  this  distribution  of  the  rainfall  through 

all  the  factors  of  climate  may  take  place  not  conflicting  at  all  with  the  coexist- 
ence of  a  permanent  or  really  secular  change  of  these  same  climatic  conditions. 
In  Mr.  Schott's  volume  on  precipitation,  however,  under  the  head  of  "  Secular 
Change  of  the  Rainfall,"  the  following  points  are  proposed  for  discussion : 
"  Whether  the  annual  rainfall  is  gradually  increasing  or  diminishing,  stationary, 
of  a  periodic  character,  or  apparently  irregular,"  and  this  inquiry  is  said  to  be 
"  one  of  great  interest,  scientifically  as  well  as  practically."  It  will  be  more  con- 
venient and  conducive  to  clearness  to  call  the  recurrent  or  periodic  changes  in 
any  factor  of  the  climate  "  oscillations  "  or  "  fluctuations,"  and  any  permanent 
non-periodic  change  a  "  secular  change,"  as  will  be  done  in  the  course  of  the 
present  discussion  of  the  subject  of  climatic  change  in  general. 


302  APPENDIX. 

the  year  —  or  annual  fluctuation,  as  Mr.  Schott  prefers  to  call  it  — 
can  be  proved  to  have  undergone  any  change  during  the  period 
through  which  the  record  extends  was  also  investigated  by  him, 
and  his  conclusions  in  regard  to  this  point  are  thus  stated:  "The 
material  collected  which  mainly  refers  to  our  own  time,  and  hardly 
reaches  back  into  the  past  century,  is  evidently  insufficient  for  a  full 
investigation,  and  obliges  us  to  be  satisfied  with  a  less  complete 
proof.77  It  can,  however,  he  adds,  be  shown  "  that  the  secular 
change,  if  any,  in  the  annual  distribution,  must  be  very  small." 
This  he  proceeds  to  do  by  an  examination  of  the  records  at  Charles- 
ton, by  means  of  observations  taken  from  1738  to  1759,  and  from 
1841  to  1861,  the  equations  representing  which  "give  nearly  iden- 
tical results,77  the  differences  being  within  the  probable  error  of 
observation,  as  shown  by  a  comparison  of  modern  results  among 
themselves  by  means  of  Station  Fort  Moultrie,  in  Charleston 
Harbor,  for  which  locality  there  is  a  series  extending  from  1842 
to  1859. 

The  discussion  which  follows  next  in  Mr.  Schott7s  volume,  and  is 
headed  "  Secular  Change  of  the  Rainfall,77  begins  with  the  remark 
that  comparatively  few  of  the  records  extending  over  a  number  of 
years  at  any  station  are  free  from  occasional  interruptions,  this 
greatly  increasing  the  labor  of  reduction,  and  impairing  the  value 
of  the  investigation.  The  difficulties  arising  from  carelessness 
and  lack  of  skill  in  the  observers  are  well  illustrated  by  a  table  of 
rainfall  observations  for  the  same  years  (1853  to  1860),  and  at  the 
same  place  (San  Francisco),  in  which  the  discrepancies  are  very 
large.1 

To  facilitate  an  investigation  of  the  evidence  bearing  on  the 
question  of  an  oscillation  or  of  a  secular  change  in  the  amount 
of  precipitation,  a  table  was  prepared  containing  a  number  of 
selected  stations  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  as  far  as  possible 
those  of  long  record  being  taken,  and  for  each  of  these  stations  the 
probable  error  in  the  amount  of  rain  fallen  in  any  one  j^ear,  and 
also  the  ratio  of  this  quantity  to  the  average  yearly  amount,  this 
furnishing  an  index  of  the  amount  of  uncertainty  which  attaches 
to  the  resulting  average  rainfall  as  made  out  from  the  present 
record.  Furthermore,  another  table  is  appended  in  which  the 

1  The  observations  taken  at  the  United  States  military  post  at  San  Francisco, 
for  instance,  indicate  an  amount  of  rainfall  differing  from  that  shown  by  the 
records  of  various  scientific  observers  in  that  city  by  as  much  as  from  one  to 
seven  inches  for  various  years.  The  figures  of  the  observers  at  the  military 
posts  are  always  less  than  those  given  elsewhere. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  303 

ratio  of  each  annual  amount  to  the  mean  is  given,  in  order  that 
in  different  localities  these  may  be  made  comparable.  To  free 
these  ratios,  as  given  in  the  last-named  table,  from  the  accidental 
irregularities,  and  to  exhibit  the  nature  of  the  fluctuations  from 
year  to  year  more  distinctly,  they  were  united  into  groups  formed 
of  stations  where  the  annual  rainfall  appears  to  be  subject  to  the 
same  laws. 

There  are  nine  of  these  groups,  of  which  three  are  said  to  be 
"  tolerably  trust  worthy, "  while  the  others  can  only  be  accepted  as 
being  rough  approximations  on  account  of  the  insufficient  number 
of  stations.  The  groups  considered  as  being  sufficiently  accurate 
to  be  made  the  subject  of  generalization  are  (1)  that  representing 
the  Atlantic  coast  from  Maine  to  Maryland  ;  (2)  the  State  of  New 
York,  with  some  adjacent  localities  ;  (3)  the  valley  of  the  Ohio, 
or  Ohio  to  Eastern  Missouri.  For  these  three  regions  the  tabular 
mean  results  are  graphically  exhibited  in  diagrams,  while  for  all 
nine  of  the  typical  groups  curves  are  furnished  which  facilitate 
examinations  made  with  reference  either  to  an  oscillation  or  a 
permanent  secular  change  of  the  rainfall. 

Of  the  diagrams  given  exhibiting  the  "  fluctuations  in  the  annual 
rainfall "  in  the  three  regions  for  which  the  data  are  designated  as 
being  "tolerably  trustworthy,"  it  is  said,  that  "the  irregularities 
in  the  successive  annual  amounts  of  rain  are  very  great,  yet  they 
do  not  wholly  obliterate  the  indications  of  a  conformity  to  general 
laws."  The  diagrams  representing  the  Atlantic  seacoast  from 
Maine  to  Maryland  and  the  State  of  New  York  "distinctly  indi- 
cate an  increase  of  rain,  on  the  average,  since  1835,  and  show  a 
certain  tendency  to  an  arrangement  of  groups  of  years  of  drought, 
followed  by  unusually  wet  years.  For  these  regions,  which  are 
geographically  so  near  each  other,  the  fluctuations  are  shown  to  be 
so  similar  that  these  groups  might  have  been  combined  and  treated 
as  one.  Of  the  fluctuations  exhibited  in  the  third  diagram  (those 
of  the  Ohio  Valley)  it  is  said  that  they  "are  of  quite  a  different 
character.77  The  essential  difference  would  seem  to  be,  that  there 
is  no  such  indication  of  a  secular  increase  of  the  rainfall  since 
1835  as  is  exhibited  in  the  Atlantic  Coast  and  New  York  diagrams, 
while  the  irregularities  of  the  western  region  seem  to  be  more 
marked,  and  less  indicative  of  the  existence  of  any  general  law  by 
which  they  might  be  governed  than  is  the  case  on  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  country. 

In  regard  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  curves  drawn  to  illustrate 


304  APPENDIX. 

the  character  of  the  rainfall  of  the  nine  groups  mentioned  above, 
and  which  include  the  three  thought  worthy,  on  account  of  their 
superior  reliability,  to  be  specially  and  more  elaborately  treated,  it 
is  said  that  "  the  curve  of  Type  I.  (the  Atlantic  coast)  points  to  a 
gradual  increase  of  the  precipitation  from  about  1818  to  the  present 
time  ;  whether  or  not  we  have  reached  the  maximum  of  this  long 
fluctuation  or  secular  change  cannot  yet  be  determined,  but  it  is 
probable  that  we  have  passed  it.  Besides  this  greater  change, 
which  extends  over  several  decades,  and  which  undoubtedly  is  of  a 
periodic  character,  there  are  smaller  undulations  covering  a  period 
of  but  a  few  years  ;  these  latter  waves  are  superposed  upon  the 
larger  one,  and  appear  of  variable  parameter,  those  near  the  mini- 
mum of  the  greater  period  being  greatest,  and  decreasing  gradually 
to  the  present  time.'7 

In  further  illustration  of  the  generalizations  which  Mr.  Schott 
felt  authorized  in  making  with  regard  to  secular  changes  of  climate 
as  indicated  by  these  curves,  the  following  may  be  quoted  :  "  The 
variations  in  the  rainfall,  from  year  to  year,  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
and  as  far  west  as  Missouri,  are  different  from  those  just  quoted, 
though  they  are  not  of  an  opposite  character.  Type  IV.  [Ohio  to 
Missouri]  indicates  no  secular  increase,  and  the  secondary  waves 
appear  larger  than  in  Type  I.  ;  the  remarkable  period  of  drought 
about  1836,  as  well  as  the  less  conspicuous  or  relative  one  about 
1855,  are  common  to  the  two  regions.  A  comparison  with  Type 
VII.  of  the  Mississippi  delta  and  Alabama  leads  to  the  inference 
that  the  law  of  succession  of  dry  and  wet  years  partakes  largely  of 
the  character  of  that  on  the  Gulf  coast.  On  our  Southern  Atlantic 
coast  the  distribution  is  different  from  any  of  the  above  types  ;  the 
rainfall  here  seems  to  have  been  on  the  decrease.  Type  IX.,  for 
the  coast  of  California,  is  too  limited  to  be  analyzed. " 1 

Finally,  the  results  of  Mr.  Schott's  investigations  are  summed 
up  by  himself  in  these  words  :  "It  must  be  admitted  that,  while 
they  [these  investigations]  exhibit,  in  a  concise  form,  the  broader 
features  of  the  laws  of  distribution  of  rain  in  the  United  States, 
they  must  still  be  regarded  as  but  first  approximations,  considering 

1  These  statements  in  Mr.  Schott's  memoir  are  followed  by  some  remarks  in 
regard  to  a  possible  correspondence  of  the  sun's  activity  in  the  production  of 
spots  with  the  variations  in  the  annual  rainfall.  His  conclusions  are  to  the  effect 
that  "  either  there  is  no  such  connection  between  the  two  phenomena  as  has  been 
supposed,  or  else  the  accidental  and  local  irregularities  in  the  rainfall  are  not 
sufficiently  eliminated  to  allow  of  the  recognition  of  the  law  regulating  the 
secular  changes." 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.          305 

the  irregularity  of  the  phenomenon  itself,  and  the  comparative 
scantiness  and  frequent  discontinuity  of  our  records.'7 

One  of  the  most  interesting  results  of  Mr.  Schott's  investiga- 
tion is  the  conclusion  to  which  he  leads  us,  that  for  the  earliest 
settled  part  of  the  country  —  the  part  where  the  observations  of 
precipitation  have  been  longest  taken  and  are  most  reliable  —  an 
increase  of  the  rainfall  during  the  past  seventy  or  eighty  years  is 
''distinctly  indicated. "  That  this  is  the  period  of  time  during 
which  this  part  of  the  country  has  been  ruthlessly  (to  use  the  term 
most  frequently  employed  by  the  advocates  of  the  idea  that  the 
"devastation  of  the  forests7'  is  everywhere  the  dominant  cause  of 
climatic  changes)  stripped  of  its  timber.  All  that  had  been  done 
in  this  direction,  in  this  region,  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  is  as  nothing  compared  with  what  has  been 
accomplished  since  that  time.  Along  the  Southern  Atlantic  coast, 
on  the  other  hand,  where  during  the  same  period  much  has  been 
accomplished  toward  denuding  the  country  of  its  forests  (although 
by  no  means  as  much  as  has  been  done  in  this  direction  in  the 
Northern  and  Middle  Atlantic  States),  the  indications  point  to  a 
secular  decrease  of  the  rainfall,  while  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  where 
settlement  and  an  active  deforestation  began  with  the  present 
century,  there  is  no  special  indication  either  of  increase  or  decrease 
of  the  rainfall  since  that  epoch.  It  can  be  safely  stated,  therefore, 
that  over  that  part  of  the  United  States  which  was  originally 
densely  covered  with  forests,  and  where  more  has  been  accom- 
plished by  settlers  to  change  the  face  of  the  country  by  cutting 
them  down  than  either  has  been  or  could  be  done  over  any  other 
area  of  similar  extent  within  the  limits  of  the  country,  there  a 
most  thorough  investigation  of  the  records  of  the  precipitation 
affords  no  proof  that  any  sensible  change  of  its  climate  has  been 
effected,  either  with  regard  to  temperature  or  the  amount  or  dis- 
tribution of  the  rainfall,  during  the  present  century,  either  by 
natural  causes  or  by  the  hand  of  man. 

It  cannot  fail  to  have  been  noticed  that  Mr.  Schott  furnishes 
no  type  curves  for  any  part  of  the  United  States  where  the  rainfall 
is  deficient,  and  enters  into  no  generalizations  with  regard  to  the 
region  specially  connected  with  the  subject  of  the  present  volume. 
The  reason  for  this  is  obvious  :  if  the  data  for  more  thickly  settled 
and  older  States  are  by  no  means  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  an 
exhaustive  investigation  of  their  climate,  much  more  is  this  the 
case  over  that  part  of  the  country  where  the  density  of  the  popula- 

20 


306  APPENDIX. 

tion  only  averages  two  and  a  half  to  the  square  mile,  and  where, 
until  within  a  very  few  years,  there  were  no  available  records  of 
temperature  or  rainfall  other  than  those  kept  at  the  military 
posts.1  As,  however,  thirteen  years  have  elapsed  since  Mr. 
Schott's  latest  work  was  published,  it  will  be  desirable  that  there 
should  be  an  examination  of  what  has  been  published  during  that 
time,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  this  new  material 
may  possibly  be  utilized  so  as  to  throw  any  light  on  the  prob- 
lem of  man's  ability  to  influence  climate. 

It  must  also  have  been  noticed  by  the  reader  of  the  preceding 
pages  that  the  most  sanguine  expectations  in  regard  to  a  pos- 
sible amelioration  of  the  climate  of  the  arid  region  have  been 
and  still  are  maintained  by  many  of  the  residents  of  that  part 
of  the  country,  and  that  these  have  been  encouraged,  to  a  very 
considerable  extent,  by  some  of  the  officials  of  the  irrigation 
surveys. 

The  ponderous  volumes  of  the  "Report  of  the  Special  Commit- 
tee of  the  United  States  Senate  on  the  Irrigation  and  Reclamation 
of  Arid  Lands, " 2  are  largely  occupied  with  statements  made  by 
the  citizens  of  the  arid  region,  the  chief  object  of  which  is  to  sub- 
stantiate the  theory  that  "as  settlement  advances  the  climatic  con- 
ditions will  be  very  much  improved." 8  The  evidence  brought 
forward  in  support  of  this  theory  is,  in  large  part,  so  vague  in 
its  character  that  it  defies  analysis  :  some  of  the  chief  points  only 
can  be  briefly  touched  upon. 

Of  course  "  reforestation "  is  one  of  the  principal  methods  by 
which  this  climatic  change  is  to  be  brought  about.  The  term  "re- 
forestation" is  used,  without  regard  to  its  real  meaning,  to  signify 
covering  a  region  with  trees  where  none  grew  before ;  for  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  Great  Plains  have  ever  been  covered  with 
an  arboreal  vegetation:  it  is  certain  that  they  have  not  been 
since  the  Tertiary  epoch,  or  at  any  time  during  the  epoch  desig- 
nated by  geologists  as  "Recent."  Yet  Mr.  Fernow,  "  Chief  of  the 
Forestry  Division, "  in  a  long  preamble  to  a  paper  which  he  sub- 
mits, and  which  is  published  as  part  of  the  evidence  laid  before  the 

1  Among  the  forty-eight  selected  stations  "of  long  record"  taken  by  Mr. 
Schott  to  form  the  basis  of  his  investigation  of  the  secular  changes  in  the  rain- 
fall, there  are  only  two  which  are  included  within  the  arid  region.    These  are  of 
course  both  United  States  military  posts,  at  one  of  which  there  was  a  series  of 
observations  extending  over  seventeen  years,  and  at  the  other  over  twelve  years. 

2  See  ante,  p.  92,  for  the  titles  and  a  synopsis  of  the  contents  of  these  volumes. 
8  See  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I.  p.  2. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  307 

committee,1  thus  expresses  himself:  "The  forest,  by  its  growth, 
creates  its  own  favorable  conditions  of  growth.  The  treelessness 
of  the  plains,  and  of  much  of  the  arid  region,  may  possibly  explain 
itself  in  this  way.  By  the  destruction  of  the  forest  which  origi- 
nally covered  this  region,  the  very  condition  of  its  existence  and  of 
its  natural  recuperation  was  destroyed;  and  thus,  in  a  reverse  man- 
ner, reforestation  of  parts  by  artificial  means  may  make  natural 
reforestation  over  the  whole  area  possible  by  and  by."  As  a  con- 
clusion from  this,  he  maintains  that  "  reforestation  on  the  plains 
and  forest  preservation  on  the  mountains  is  of  greater  national 
concern  than  the  location  of  irrigation  reservoirs. " 

More  incorrect  views  than  these  were  never  expressed,  even  by 
a  United  States  government  official.  Portions  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face are  naturally  densely  covered  by  forests ;  other  parts  are  very 
thinly  wooded;  and  still  others  are,  and  have  been  during  long 
ages  —  that  is,  during  the  whole  of  the  present  epoch  —  entirely 
bare  of  arboreal  vegetation.  Climate  and  soil  are  the  regulators  of 
this  condition  of  things.  The  tundras,  steppes,  plains,  and  deserts 
are  not  the  work  of  man's  hand,  any  more  than  are  the  tropical 
forests.  Where  nature  designed  trees  to  grow,  there,  as  fast  as  these 
decay  and  die,  they  are  replaced  by  a  new  growth,  unless  this  be 
artificially  hindered.  So,  on  the  other  hand,  the  regions  naturally 
bare  of  forests  can  only  with  great  difficulty  be  covered  with  them. 
Indeed  it  may  be  said  with  truth  that  an  "  artificial  forest  "  does  not 
anywhere  exist,  that  is,  in  any  other  sense  than  as  a  continuation 
of  a  previously  existing  natural  forest.  Groves  of  trees  may  be 
planted,  and,  with  sufficient  care  and  with  great  expense,  these 
may  be  kept  alive,  but  no  large  area  naturally  destitute  of  arboreal 
vegetation  has  ever  been  converted  into  a  forest,  and  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  no  such  area  ever  will  be. 

The  experience  of  the  General  Government  in  endeavoring,  by 
means  of  "  timber-culture  laws,"  to  cover  the  non-forested  parts  of 
the  country  with  a  growth  of  trees,  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
difficulties  encountered  in  attempting  this  reversal  of  nature's 
laws.  As  early  as  1873,  Congress  passed  an  act  "to  encourage 
the  growth  of  timber  on  the  Western  prairies,"  under  the  pro- 
visions of  which  any  settler  might  obtain,  without  cost,  a  quarter- 
section  of  land  "for  the  purpose  of  the  cultivation  of  timber 
thereon."  This  act  was  several  times  amended,  and  finally 
repealed  in  1891,  for  the  reason  that  it  accomplished  nothing 

*  Loc.  cit.,  Vol.  IV.  p.  112. 


308  APPENDIX. 

toward  a  reforestation  of  the  country,  but  only  (like  the  swamp-> 
land  laws)  opened  the  door  to  wholesale  fraud.1 

Scientific  observations  have  also  been  relied  on,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  to  support  the  theory  that  the  climate  of  the  arid  region  is 
improving  as  a  consequence  of  the  occupation  of  the  land  by  set- 
tlers. It  is  true  that,  under  the  direction  of  the  Signal  Service, 
the  number  of  stations  at  which  meteorological  observations  are 
taken  has  been  considerably  increased  since  the  date  of  Mr. 
Schott's  investigations;  but  many  more  than  now  exist  are  needed, 
and  especially  in  the  Cordilleran  region.  Here  the  topography 
of  the  country  is  extremely  diversified.  High  mountain  ranges 
alternate  with  much  lower  valleys ;  and  the  amount  of  rainfall 
being  to  a  considerable  extent  dependent  on  the  altitude  of  the 
stations,  as  shown  beyond  doubt  by  the  observations  taken  on  the 
few  high  points  which  have  been  occupied,2  it  follows  that,  before 
there  can  be  any  satisfactory  rain-charts  showing  even  the  general 
features  of  the  annual  distribution  of  the  rainfall  over  a  large  part 
of  the  arid  region,  a  long  series  of  observations  must  have  been 
accumulated  at  a  great  number  of  stations,  and  the  results  laid 
down  on  accurate  maps,  which  must  necessarily  be  on  a  much 
larger  scale  than  is  required  for  the  region  lying  to  the  east  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  where  the  topography  is  extremely  simple. 

Notwithstanding  these  difficulties,  the  Signal  Service  did  re- 
cently prepare  a  work  in  which  an  attempt  was  made  to  furnish 
later  and  more  reliable  information  with  regard  to  the  amount  and 
distribution  of  the  rainfall  in  the  arid  region.  This  volume  bears 
the  date  of  1891,  and  was  furnished  in  accordance  with  a  resolution 
which  passed  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  May  23,  1890,  and 
which  was  thus  worded  :  "That  the  Secretary  of  War  be,  and  is 
hereby,  requested  to  transmit  to  the  House  of  Representatives  the 
reports  that  have  been  prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  Chief 
Signal  Officer  of  the  Army  upon  the  climate  of  Arizona  and  New 
Mexico  and  other  parts  of  the  arid  region,  together  with  such 
tables,  particularly  of  rainfall,  temperature,  evaporation,  and  other 

1  The  present  writer,  after  the  timber-culture  act  had  been  several  years  in 
force,  made  a  journey  through  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas,  and  Montana,  partly 
with  the  object  of  ascertaining  whether  anything  had  been  accomplished  toward 
reforesting  that  part  of  the  country  by  this  kind  of  encouragement.     Nowhere 
could  it  be  seen  that  anything  worthy  of  notice  had  been  accomplished.     Most  of 
the  trees  set  out,  along  the  railroads  chiefly,  appeared  to  be  but  little  more  flour- 
ishing than  so  many  broomsticks. 

2  See  "  Table  of  Annual  Precipitation,"  etc.,  ante,  p.  37. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  309 

matters  as  relate  thereto,  with  such  corrections,  alterations,  and 
additions  as  may  be  deemed  advisable  by  the  Chief  Signal  Officer, 
who  will  also  express  his  views  as  to  the  value  and  importance  of 
said  tables  of  temperature,  evaporation,  etc.,  and  their  bearing 
upon  the  subject  of  irrigation  and  water  storage." 

The  volumes  published  as  authorized  by  the  above  resolution 
relate  to  California,  Nevada,  Colorado,  Utah,  New  Mexico,  and 
Arizona.  For  each  of  these  States  and  Territories  a  series  of  maps 
is  given,  on  which  are  shown  the  normal  annual  and  seasonal 
precipitation,  as  also  the  normal  annual  temperature,  and  the  tem- 
perature curves  for  January  and  July.  In  the  introductory  remarks 
prefixed  to  these  maps,  the  subject  of  irrigation  and  water  storage 
in  the  arid  region  is  discussed  in  a  very  general  way,  without 
giving  any  information  of  special  value  to  those  desirous  of  en- 
gaging in  an  irrigational  enterprise.  Such  information  was  indeed 
hardly  to  be  expected  in  a  work  of  this  kind.  To  be  of  practical 
value  the  details  for  any  specified  locality  where  capital  is  to  be 
expended  must  be  given  with  the  greatest  fullness,  and  with  a  high 
degree  of  accuracy,  as  has  been  candidly  admitted  by  those  officials 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  who  are  engaged  in  the 
irrigational  department  of  that  work. 

The  rainfall  charts  accompanying  the  Signal  Service  report  are 
necessarily  very  imperfect.  Their  scale  is  small  —  not  much  over 
fifty  miles  to  an  inch  —  and  they  show  only  the  roughest  indica- 
tions of  topography.  Indeed,  accuracy,  or  even  a  moderate  amount 
of  detail  of  this  kind,  was  not  to  be  looked  for,  since  only  small 
portions  of  the  arid  region  have  ever  been  mapped  except  in  the 
roughest  possible  manner.  But  even  if  accurate  topographical 
maps  did  exist,  and  it  were  deemed  possible  to  utilize  them  as  a 
basis  for  rain  or  temperature  charts,  the  lack  of  accurate  observa- 
tions at  a  sufficient  number  of  stations  is,  as  has  already  been 
explained,  so  great,  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  arrive  at  any 
satisfactory  result.  This  condition  of  things  may  be  illustrated 
by  reference  to  the  Territory  of  Arizona,  which  has  an  area  of 
about  113,000  square  miles,  and  over  much  the  larger  part  of  which 
the  topography  has  never  been  studied  in  any  detail.1  In  the  list 
of  stations  at  which  meteorological  data  have  been  obtained  for  the 
construction  of  the  temperature  and  rain  charts,  there  are  only  five 

1  Of  this  Territory  what  is  called  "  an  orographic  and  climatic  chart "  is 
given,  but  the  meaning  of  the  colors  and  lines  displayed  upon  it  is  nowhere 
explained ! 


310  APPENDIX. 

places  mentioned  at  which  observations  have  been  kept  up  for  more 
than  twenty  years,  and  these  are  all  military  posts,  the  deficiencies 
of  the  observations  at  which,  especially  in  the  earlier  years,  has 
already  been  the  subject  of  remark.  At  forty-five  of  the  stations 
the  records  are  of  less  than  two  years'  duration,  and  this  in  a  region 
of  which  the  variability  of  the  rainfall  may  be  estimated  from  the 
fact  that  at  one  of  the  stations  (Fort  Mojave)  the  precipitation  was 
in  one  year  (1886)  2.20  inches,  and  in  another  (1889)  21.38  inches. 
It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  charts  based  on  such  a  slen- 
der stock  of  information  have  neither  a  scientific  nor  a  practical 
value. 

More  surprising  as  respects  insufficiency  and  inaccuracy  is  the 
table  given  in  the  Signal  Service  volume,1  which  is  headed  "  An- 
nual Rainfall,"  and  which  professes  to  give  the  annual  average 
precipitation  in  inches  in  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  arid 
region  over  belts  lying  between  certain  contour  lines,  and  the 
number  of  cubic  miles  of  annual  rainfall  on  each  of  these  belts.2 
Such  a  table,  if  accurate,  would  be  of  great  scientific  interest,  but 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  it  could  be  made  of  practical  value.  Based 
on  such  imperfect  data  as  at  present  exist,  it  is  simply  a  snare  and 
a  delusion.8 

The  desire  existing  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  at  Washington, 
at  least  at  the  time  most  of  the  various  documents  which  have  been 
noticed  in  the  present  volume  were  issued,  to  make  things  pleasant 
for  the  inhabitants  of  the  arid  region,  cannot  fail  to  have  been 
noticed.  This  condition  of  things  could  receive  no  better  illustra- 
tion than  that  already  mentioned;4  namely,  that  the  Chief  Signal 
Officer  considered  it  a  sufficient  reason  for  placing  the  "arid  region 
limit  "  at  fifteen,  instead  of  twenty,  inches  of  rainfall,  that  seri- 
ous and  protracted  droughts  occur  where  the  average  precipitation 
ranges  between  thirty  and  fifty  inches.  Again,  a  similar  inclina- 
tion to  present  facts  under  a  more  favorable  light  than  is  consistent 

1  See  page  19  of  that  work. 

2  Thus  for  Colorado  the  areas  specified  are  :  4,000  feet  and  less ;  4,000  to  5,000 
feet;  5,000  to  7,000  feet ;  7,000  feet  and  over. 

3  That  this  statement  is  not  one  made  at  random  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  in  the  Signal  Service  "  Table  of  Annual  Rainfall "  here  under  discussion 
the  amount  of  precipitation  at  7,000  feet  and  over,  in  Nevada,  is  given  in  inches 
and  fractions  of  an  inch,  and  the  number  of  cubic  miles  of  rainfall  over  the  area 
in  fractions  of  a  cubic  mile,  while  there  is  not  a  single  meteorological  station  in 
that  State  at  an  elevation  of  over  7,000  feet,  and  only  five  over  6,000  feet,  the 
area  of  the  State  being  109,740  square  miles. 

*  See  ante,  p.  219. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF   CLIMATE.  3H 

with  truth  is  manifested  on  the  part  of  the  same  officer  when  he  says 
that,  in  his  opinion,  "the  trans-Mississippi  and  the  trans-Missouri 
rainfall  is  slightly  increasing  as  a  whole,  though  in  certain  locali- 
ties it  may  be  slightly  decreasing,"  and  adds:  "It  seems  most 
proper  for  him  to  put  forth  his  strong  conviction,  even  though  it 
be  not  a  certainty,  when,  as  in  this  case,  it  will  tend  to  reassure 
the  agricultural  population  of  the  lately  drought-stricken  districts 
of  the  West." 

It  will  be  well  to  inquire  what  is  the  basis  of  the  Chief  Signal 
Officer's  happy  anticipations  with  regard  to  the  future  of  the  arid 
region,  as  thus  formulated  by  him,  and  as  also  indicated  in  the 
following  additional  passage  quoted  from  the  same  source:  "There 
appears  no  possible  reason  to  believe  that  the  scanty  rainfall  of  the 
past  year  or  two  will  not  be  followed  by  increasing  precipitation  in 
the  next  few  years,  which  will  maintain  the  annual  rainfall  of  these 
sections  at  the  average,  or  even  increase  it."1  The  evidence  for 
the  truth  of  this  opinion  appears  to  be  the  following.  The  later 
rainfall  charts  of  the  Signal  Service,  prepared  in  the  manner  indi- 
cated above,  show  the  area  on  which  the  mean  annual  precipitation 
is  less  than  ten  inches  as  being  considerably  less  than  that  so 
represented  on  the  statistical  maps  of  the  tenth  census,  and  a 
similar  reduction  of  area  is  indicated  for  the  part  of  the  country 
where  the  rainfall  is  between  ten  and  fifteen  inches.  By  the  use  of 
what  entirely  insufficient  data  these  later  maps  have  been  prepared 
has  already  been  shown,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  further  on 
this  matter.  But  the  changes  which  have  already  been  made  on 
the  rain  charts  for  the  benefit  of  the  settlers  on  the  arid  lands  are 
likely  to  be  exceeded  by  those  which  the  future  has  in  store  for 
them,  since  the  Chief  Signal  Officer  thus  expresses  himself  in 
regard  to  the  climatological  probabilities  of  this  region:  "When 
Idaho,  Nevada,  Utah,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona  have  been  covered 
with  rain  gauges  as  completely  as  New  York  or  New  England,  the 
final  outcome  of  observations  will  indicate  that  the  actual  average 
of  rainfall  for  this  arid  region  is  now  understated  by  the  census 
charts  (Census  of  1880)  from  twenty  to  forty,  and  by  these  [the 
latest  ones  of  the  Signal  Service,  namely]  from  ten  to  fifteen  per 
cent."2  And  this  is  the  kind  of  material  furnished  by  our  scien- 

1  See  "  Report  on  Rainfall  in  Washington,  Oregon,"  p.  15. 

2  The  number  of  rain  gauges  regularly  observed  in  New  England,  in  April, 
1894,  was  210,  its  area  being  somewhat  more  than  one  eighth  of  that  of  the  States 
and  Territories  here  designated  by  the  Chief  Signal  Officer;  about  1,700  stations 


312  APPENDIX. 

tific  bureaus,  of  late  years,  to  meet  the  demands  for  information 
made  on  them  by  politicians  ! 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  it  is  that  Professors  in  Uni- 
versities near  the  borders  of  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States 
should  from  time  to  time  have  advocated  the  theory  that  the 
rainfall  of  that  part  of  the  country  was  increasing,  and  that  this 
presumed  increase  should  be  attributed  to  the  settlement  and  culti- 
vation of  the  land  was  quite  natural.1  The  deficiency  of  accurate 
and  long  continued  observations,  which  Mr.  Schott  found  to  be  a 
sufficient  reason  for  not  attempting  to  generalize  in  regard  to  the 
climate  of  the  country  any  farther  west  than  Eastern  Missouri, 
did  not  deter  others  from  trying  to  discover  evidence  that  would 
justify  them  in  supporting  a  theory  the  firm  establishment  of  which 
would  be  so  desirable. 

As  early  as  February,  1880,  or  shortly  before  the  publication  of 
the  second  edition  of  Mr.  Schott's  volume  on  Precipitation  in  the 
United  States,  Messrs.  Aughey  and  Wilbur,  of  the  University  of 
Nebraska,  addressed  a  communication  to  the  Governor  of  that  State 
in  regard  to  the  climatic  conditions  of  the  region  west  of  the  100th 
meridian,  in  which,  after  the  preliminary  statement  that  the  soil 
of  that  part  of  the  country  is  "  chemically  equal  to  any  similar 
area  of  soil  taken  in  any  part  of  the  American  continent,'7  water 
being  "the  only  element  lacking  to  insure  complete  productive- 
ness,77 they  proceed  to  assert  that  they  hold  it  to  be  proved 
beyond  reasonable  question  that  "the  present  rate  of  increase  in 
rainfall  will  in  a  comparatively  short  time  fit  this  region  for  agri- 
culture without  the  aid  of  irrigation."  The  actual  increase  of 
rainfall,  thay  say,  "is  clearly  demonstrated  by  observations  taken 
over  a  period  long  enough  to  give  consecutiveness  to  the  deduc- 
tions made."  Farther  on,  it  is  added:  "Observations,  experiment 
and  the  highest  scientific  authority  demonstrate  that  climates  in 
the  West  are  becoming  moister  and  that  rainfall  is  increasing 
steadily.  This  increase  must  extend  steadily  until  the  plains  east 
of  Denver  and  Laramie  receive  sufficient  rainfall  to  produce  farm 
products.77  2 

must  therefore  have  been  established  in  that  part  of  the  arid  region  before  its 
average  rainfall  will  be  found  to  have  been  raised  from  twenty  to  forty  per  cent 
above  that  indicated  on  the  charts  of  the  census  of  1880. 

1  See  ante,  p.  239,  for  Mr.  Newell's  remarks  in  regard  to  the  large  rainfall  of 
1884  over  certain  districts,  as  having  been  "noticed  and  popularly  attributed  to 
the  effects  of  cultivation  and  to  other  causes  under  the  control  of  man." 

2  The  present  writer  has  never  been  able  to  procure  a  copy  of  the  original 


DISCUSSION  OF   CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  313 

Without  attempting  to  analyze  the  evidence  on  which  these 
statements  of  Messrs.  Aughey  and  Wilbur  are  based,  it  is  sufficient 
to  remark  that  this  desired  increase  of  rainfall  has,  up  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  not  taken  place;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fourteen 
years  which  have  elapsed  since  these  predictions  of  a  more  satisfac 
tory  condition  of  things  on  the  Great  Plains  were  made  have  been 
constantly  occupied  by  endeavors  to  increase  the  water  supply  of 
that  region  in  the  various  ways  indicated  in  the  preceding  pages, 
and  by  irrigational  surveys  and  investigations  made  at  the  expense 
of  the  General  Government,  and  loudly  called  for  by  the  inhabit- 
ants, who  are  by  no  means  contented  with  the  assertions  made  by 
the  Professors  of  their  Universities  that  the  demonstrated  increase 
of  rainfall  "must  extend  steadily,7'  and  that  "any  evidence  of 
present  dryness,  where  dryness  exists,  is  evidence  only  for  the 
present." 

Since  general  experience  justifies  us  in  asserting  that  everywhere 
there  is  considerable  irregularity  in  the  rainfall  of  successive  years, 
or,  as  Mr.  Schott  expresses  it  in  discussing  the  conditions  prevail- 
ing on  the  Atlantic  coast,  "a  tendency  to  an  arrangement  of  groups 
of  years  of  drought,  followed  by  unusually  wet  years/7  nothing 
could  be  more  natural  than  that  some  regularity  in  the  recurrence 
of  these  wet  and  dry  periods  should  be  sought  for,  since  if  any  such 
proof  of  a  conformity  to  general  laws  could  be  obtained,  there  would 
be  reason  to  hope  that  a  sound  basis  for  prediction  might  be  se- 
cured —  a  matter  certainly  of  great  scientific  and  practical  impor- 
tance. That  up  to  the  present  time  no  positive  result  of  this  kind 
has  been  reached  —  so  far  at  least  as  the  working  over  of  the  Smith- 
sonian material  by  Mr.  Schott  is  concerned  —  has  already  been 
explained.1  The  same  is  the  case  with  reference  to  the  climatic 
conditions  of  various  foreign  countries  wrhere  long  series  of  mete- 
orological observations  exist  and  have  been  elaborately  investigated. 
Nowhere  has  it  been  proved  that  these  alternations  of  wetter  and 
dryer  periods  were  subjected  to  any  law  of  periodicity.2  ffcaacjoft  Lib1 


communication  of  Professors  Aughey  and  Wilbur  to  the  Governor  of  Nebraska, 
and  is  obliged  therefore  to  content  himself  with  extracts  from  it  which  have 
been  given  repeatedly  in  various  government  irrigational  publications.  (See 
Hinton's  "Irrigation  in  the  United  States,"  p,  146.) 

1  See  ante,  pp.  303,  304. 

2  The  most  thorough  climatic  investigation  ever  made,  unless  we  except  that 
of  Mr.  Schott,  is  one  relating  to  the  climate  of  Geneva,  in  Switzerland,  by  Pro- 
fessor E.  Plantamour,  which  forms  the  second  part  of  the  twenty-fourth  volume 
of  the  "  Memoires  de  la  Socie'te'  de  Physique  et  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Geneve," 
and  was  published  in  1875-76.    For  this  investigation  fifty  consecutive  years  of 


314  APPENDIX. 

Notwithstanding  these  facts,  various  meteorologists  in  the  West- 
ern States  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  rainfall  of  certain 
regions  was,  as  respects  its  distribution  through  a  series  of  years, 
a  phenomenon  of  regular  recurrence.  Thus,  Mr.  E.  C.  Murphy 
maintains,  not  only  that  the  rainfall  of  Kansas  is  increasing  in 
quantity,  hut  also  that  periods  of  more  and  less  abundant  precipita- 
tion succeed  each  other  at  intervals  of  seven  years.1  There  are 
only  three  stations  for  which  there  is  a  continuous  record  of  the 
rainfall  extending  over  a  period  of  any  considerable  length  ;  these 
are  Fort  Leavenworth,  Manhattan,  and  Lawrence,  which  places  all 
lie  considerably  to  the  east  of  the  100th  meridian,  and  are  by  no 
means  within  the  arid  belt.2  The  Fort  Leavenworth  series  is  the 
longest,  extending  with  a  few  breaks  from  1836  on;  at  Manhattan 
observations  have  been  made  continuously  since  1854,  and  at  Law- 
rence since  1868.  The  series  at  Fort  Leavenworth  is  divided  by 
Mr.  Murphy  into  eight  periods  of  seven  years  each,  alternately  dry 
and  wet,  the  first  dry  period  beginning  with  1836.  There  are 
five  of  these  periods  in  the  Manhattan  series,  and  three  in  that  of 
Lawrence,  all  ending  with  the  year  1891.  The  differences  between 
the  means  of  the  wet  and  dry  periods  are  in  all  cases  but  one  very 
small;  this  one  being  the  years  1871-1877,  the] mean  of  which  is 
5.27  inches  larger  than  that  of  any  other  period.  In  the  case  of  the 
Fort  Leavenworth  series  the  mean  rainfall  of  the  last  dry  period 
(1878-1884)  was  0.62  inch  greater  than  that  of  the  next  succeed- 
ing wet  period;  in  the  Manhattan  series  the  mean  rainfall  of  the  dry 
period  1878-18$4  was  3.60  inches  more  than  that  of  the  next  fol- 
lowing wet  period;  in  the  Lawrence  series  the  mean  of  the  dry 
period  1878-1884  is  2.17  inches  more  than  that  of  the  next  pre- 
ceding wet  period.  More  extraordinary  than  this,  however,  is  the 
fact  revealed  in  these  records  of  the  great  irregularity  in  the  rela- 
tion of  the  annual  rainfall  of  stations  near  each  other,  and  topo- 
graphically similarly  situated.  This  condition  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  statement  that  the  rainfall  at  Manhattan  during  the  two 
years  1874  and  1875  was  about  the  same  in  amount  (17.61  and 

elaborate  and  accurate  meteorological  observations  were  available.  A  searching 
analysis  of  this  accumulated  material  gave  no  support  to  any  theory  of  a  regular 
recurrence  of  groups  of  years  of  larger  rainfall  and  comparative  drought. 

1  See  "  Transactions  of  the  Kansas  Academy  of  Science,"  Vol.  XIII.  (1891-92), 
pp.  16-19. 

2  The  longitudes  of  these  three  stations  are,  according  to  Mr.  Schott,  respect- 
ively 94°  54',  96°  39',  and  95°  12';  the  average  rainfall  being  33.38,  29.89,  and 
33.10  inches. 


DISCUSSION  OF  CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  315 

17.96  inches),  and  only  a  little  more  than  half  what  it  was  at  Fort 
Leavenworth  during  those  years  (33.81  and  31.26  inches);  while 
during  the  next  year  (1876)  it  was  actually  greater  at  Manhattan 
than  it  was  at  Fort  Leavenworth.  Again,  at  Wallace  the  rainfall  of 
the  year  1880  was  34.10  inches,  and  that  of  1881  was  8.38  inches. 
With  such  irregularities  in  the  precipitation,  records  covering  short 
periods  of  observation  would  seem  to  be  of  very  little  value  in 
reference  to  a  settlement  of  the  question  of  a  secular  change  of  the 
climate.  The  general  impression  in  Kansas,  however,  is  that  the 
rainfall  in  that  State  has  increased  considerably  within  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century,  although  there  are  some  persons  who  do  not 
admit  this,  but  maintain  that  it  has  become  more  equally  distrib- 
uted through  successive  years,  and  believe  that  this  has  resulted 
from  the  increased  cultivation  of  the  soil.1 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  facts  which  have  been  presented  in  the 
preceding  pages  how  far  we  are  as  yet  from  having  any  precise 
knowledge  of  the  secular  changes  which  the  climate  of  this  or  any 
other  country  may  be  undergoing.  Instrumental  records  up  to 
the  present  time  do  not  authorize  us  to  say  that  the  average  tem- 
perature or  rainfall  of  any  part  of  the  earth  has  either  permanently 
increased  or  diminished  since  accurate  observations  began  to  be 
taken.  Nor  has  any  regular  periodicity  been  made  out  for  those 
oscillations  of  the  climate  which  are  of  short  period,  and  which, 
though  not  wandering  very  far  from  the  means,  are  yet  in  many 
regions  of  decided  importance,  where  a  basis  for  prediction  would 
certainly  be  highly  desirable.  Still  further,  it  may  be  stated  with 
truth  that  the  many  efforts  which  have  been  made  to  prove  that 
climate  is  something  within  the  control  of  man  have  all  proved 
failures.  Some  minor  inconveniences  have,  in  certain  regions, 
been  more  or  less  effectually  remedied  by  human  effort :  damp  and 
marshy  regions  have  been  drained,  the  ravages  of  mountain  tor- 
rents prevented,  snow  avalanches  checked,  and  even  the  inroads 
of  the  sea  restrained  over  limited  areas,  although  not  without  im- 
mense expenditures;  but  no  great  modification  of  the  natural  physi- 
cal conditions  of  any  considerable  part  of  the  earth's  surface  has  ever 
been  brought  about  by  the  hand  of  man. 

1  Professor  G.  F.  Becker  thinks  that  he  perceives  "  indications  of  what  seems 
to  be  a  13-year  periodicity"  of  the  rainfall  in  California,  "there  being  decided 
minima  in  the  seasons  of  1850-51,  1863-64,  and  1876-77."  See  "  Bulletin  of  the 
University  of  California,"  No.  31,  for  February,  1878.  But  at  the  same  time  he 
admits  that  "  the  data  discussed  are  too  few,  both  as  to  time  and  geographical 
distribution,  for  any  very  reliable  generalization." 


316  APPENDIX. 

We  are,  however,  not  without  abundant  evidence  that  there  have 
been  great  climatic  changes  during  the  geological  ages.  The 
zonal  distribution  of  life,  a  condition  so  largely  dependent  on 
temperature,  has  been  developed  with  the  progress  of  time,  and 
this,  from  the  geological  point  of  view,  is  a  comparatively  modern 
event.  Furthermore,  the  past  and  present  distribution  of  vegetable 
and  animal  life  —  the  latter,  however,  in  a  much  less  satisfactory 
manner  than  the  former  —  proves  that  there  has  been  on  the  whole 
a  decided  diminution  of  temperature,  the  evidences  of  which  change 
are  naturally  most  marked  in  high  northern  latitudes,  where  once 
flourished  the  vegetation  of  a  temperate  or  even  semi-tropical  cli- 
mate. The  nature  and  cause  of  this  phenomenon  have  been  the 
object  of  much  investigation  and  discussion,  but  we  are  up-  to 
the  present  time  far  from  having  arrived  at  any  satisfactory  and 
generally  admitted  solution  of  the  problem. 

Still  more  difficult  of  explanation  is  the  complicated  series  of 
climatic  changes  which  belongs  to  the  latest  period  of  the  earth's 
history,  and  which  are  grouped  together  as  characterizing  the 
i '  Glacial  Epoch, ' '  during  which  over  a  considerable  part  of  Northern 
and  even  Central  Europe  the  glaciers  had  a  much  greater  exten- 
sion than  they  have  at  the  present  time,  and  when  large  areas  in 
Northeastern  North  America,  where  now  no  permanent  glaciers 
exist,  were  heavily  covered  by  ice.  While  this  glacial  develop- 
ment connects  itself  —  in  certain  regions  at  least  —  with  the 
present  epoch,  and  was  perhaps  everywhere  synchronous  with  the 
existence  of  human  life  on  the  globe,  yet  no  geologist  or  clima- 
tologist  maintains  that  it  was  in  the  slightest  degree  the  result 
of  human  agency.  The  causes  are  obscure,  and  the  more  difficult  of 
explanation  in  that  it  was,  although  widespread,  by  no  means  a 
phenomenon  of  universal  occurrence,  and  seemingly  not  in  harmony 
with  the  more  gradual  and  general  refrigeration  which  the  earth 
had  been  undergoing  during  the  ages  by  which  it  was  preceded. 

There  is  a  phenomenon  which  has  been  manifesting  itself  for  an 
indefinite  length  of  time,  having  been  begun  before  the  initiation 
of  the  Glacial  Epoch,  and  which  is  still  in  progress,  and  of  which 
the  causes  are  as  obscure  as  those  of  that  epoch.  Although  making 
itself  felt  over  a  much  larger  part  of  the  earth's  surface  than  was 
covered  by  the  ice  at  the  time  of  its  greatest  glacial  extension, 
this  phase  of  the  earth's  history  has  thus  far  received  but  little 
attention,  much  less  having  been  done  towards  its  investigation 
than  has  been  with  reference  to  an  understanding  of  the  nature 


DISCUSSION  OF   CHANGES  OF  CLIMATE.  317 

and  causes  of  the  Glacial  Epoch.  The  phenomenon  in  question  is 
this  :  over  all  the  great  continental  masses,  and  especially  in  the 
closed  basin  regions,  many  lakes  have  long  been  and  still  are  dimin- 
ishing in  area,  while  the  volume  of  the  water  carried  down  by  the 
rivers  has  in  many  cases  been  proved,  either  by  direct  measurement 
or  by  geological  observations,  to  have  very  considerably  lessened. 
The  causes  of  this  hitherto  but  little  investigated,  but  highly  im- 
portant, phenomenon  have  not  yet  been  explained  in  any  way 
meeting  with  general  acceptance.  That  it  was  and  is  a  "  climatic 
change  "  seems  highly  probable.  It  can  hardly  be  otherwise  than 
that  some  modification  of  the  earth's  meteorological  conditions  has 
brought  about,  and  is  still  causing,  this  secular  desiccation,  the 
nature  and  extent  of  which  have  only  just  begun  to  be  studied,  but 
to  which  the  attention  of  climatologists  cannot  fail  to  be  more 
generally  directed  in  the  near  future. 


318  APPENDIX. 


C. 


LIST  OF  UNITED  STATES  OFFICIAL  REPORTS  RELATING  TO 
IRRIGATION,  AND  MATTERS  CONNECTED  THEREWITH. 

Congressional. 

Keport  of  the  Special  Committee  of  the  United  States  Senate  on  the 
Irrigation  and  Eeclamation  of  Arid  Lands.  51st  Congress, 
1st  Session.  Report  928,  in  six  parts.  1890. 

Part  1.     Keport  of  Committee,  and  Views  of  Minority,  pp.  178. 

Part  2.     The  Northwest,  pp.  459. 

Part  3.     The  Great  Basin  Kegion  and  California,  pp.  573. 

Part  4.     Rocky  Mountain  Region  and  Great  Plains,  pp.  608. 

Part  5.  Statements  of  the  Director  of  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey.  Reports  of  United  States  Consuls  in  Coun- 
tries using  Irrigation.  Miscellaneous  Papers  on  the  subject 
of  Irrigation,  pp.  384. 

Part  6.  A  Second  Edition  of  Miscellaneous  Document  No.  15, 
49th  Congress  ;  essentially  a  reprint  of  Hinton's  First  Report 
on  Irrigation  in  the  United  States. 

Report  of  the  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  on 
Irrigation  of  Arid  Lands.  52d  Congress,  1st  Session.  Report 
No.  569.  pp.  12. 

Department  of  Agriculture. 

ANNUAL  REPORTS  OF  THE  COMMISSIONER  OF  PATENTS  :  — 
1854.     Gardening  (Watering  or  Irrigation,  p.  332). 

1858.  Browne,  D.  J.       Drainage,  its  History,  Principles,  Ad- 

vantages to  the  Agriculturist,  pp.  273-280. 

1859.  Clemson,  Thorn.  G.     Fertilizers,  pp.  136-178  (Irrigation, 

pp.  146,  147.) 

1860.  Smith,  E.  Goodrich.     Irrigation,  pp.  166-224. 

1861.  Bliss,  Edward.     Territory  of  Colorado :  its  Soil,  its  Cli- 

mate, its  Mineral  Products  and  Resources,  pp.   154- 
157  (Irrigation,  p.  156). 


LIST  OF  IRRIGATION  REPORTS.  319 

ANNUAL  KEPORTS  OF  THE  COMMISSIONER  OF  AGRICULTURE  :  — 

1862.  The  Agriculture  of    Morocco.     By  V.   D.    Collins,  pp. 
499-508. 

1867.  Irrigation.     By  Chas.  D.  Poston,  pp.  193-200. 

1868.  Irrigation  (on  a  farm  at  Brattleboro,  Vt.),  p.  502. 

1869.  Irrigation  and  Agriculture  in  Utah,  pp.  431,  432. 
1869.  Irrigation.     By  Horace  Greeley,  pp.  510,  511. 
1869.  Irrigation  as  a  Renovator  of  Pasture  Lands,  p.  526. 

1869.  Irrigation  in  San  Luis  Park,  Colo.,  p.  603. 

1870.  Irrigation  in  many  Parts  of  Europe,  pp.  501,  502. 
1870.     Irrigation  Canals  in  California.     Geo.  Barstow,  p.  517. 

1870.  Modes  and  Results  of  Irrigation,  pp.  576-584. 

1871.  Practical  Irrigation  in  Colorado,  pp.  254-275. 

1871.  Irrigation  Systems  of  Different  Countries,  pp.  275-287. 

1872.  Irrigation  in  England,  pp.  559,  560. 

1873.  Irrigation,  pp.  282,  283. 

1873.     Agriculture  in  Japan.     By  Horace  Capron,  pp.  364-374 
(Irrigation,  pp.  366-374). 

1873.  Irrigation  and  Cotton  Culture  in  California,  p.  378. 

1874.  Irrigation  in  California,   pp.  352-362.     Irrigation  :   its 

Evils,   Remedies,   and  Compensations.      By  Geo.  P. 

Marsh,  pp.  362-381. 
1876.     Irrigation  in  Maine.     D.  M.  Dunham,  abstract,  pp.  380, 

381. 
1881-82.     Irrigation  as  a  Eemedy  for  Chinch  Bug,  pp.  88,  89. 

1885.  Wheat  Culture  in  India  :   Irrigation,  pp.  580,  581,  by 

Rev.  J.  L.  Hauser,  pp.  569-582. 

1886.  Irrigation,  p.  40. 

1887.  Irrigation,  pp.  44,  45. 

1888.  Irrigation  in  Victoria,  Australia,  p.  469. 

1889.  Irrigation  Problems,    p.    268.     Influence   of  Forests  on 

Water  Supplies,  by  B.  E.  Fernow,  pp.  297-330.    Anal- 
yses of  Water,  p.  497. 

1890.  Report  of  the  Special  Agent  in  Charge  of  the  Artesian 

and  Underflow  Investigations  and  of   the  Irrigation 
Inquiry.     By  Richard  Hinton,  pp.  471-488. 

1891.  Report  of  the  Special  Agent  in  Charge  of  the  Artesian 

and  Underflow  Investigations,  and  of  the  Irrigation 
Inquiry,  pp.  439-450. 


320  APPENDIX. 

Keport  on  the  Climate  and  Agricultural  Features  and  the  Agricul- 
tural Practice  and  Needs  of  the  Arid  Regions  of  the  Pacific 
Slope,  etc.  By  E.  W.  Hilgard,  T.  C.  Jones,  and  R.  W.  Fur- 
nas.  Washington,  1882,  182  pp. 

Artesian  Wells  upon  the  Great  Plains  ;  Report  of  Geological  Com- 
mission appointed  to  examine  a  portion  of  the  Great  Plains  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  to  report  upon  the  Localities  deemed 
most  favorable  for  making  Experimental  Borings.  Washington, 
1882.  (C.  A.  White  and  Samuel  Aughey.)  38  pp. 

Preliminary  Report  on  the  Forestry  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  and 
Tree-planting  on  the  Plains.  By  F.  P.  Baker.  Washington, 
1883. 

Irrigation  in  the  United  States.  A  Report  prepared  by  Richard 
J.  Hinton,  under  the  Direction  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agricul- 
ture. Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1887.  240  pp. 

Letter  from  Secretary,  transmitting  Report  of  Preliminary  Inves- 
tigation to  determine  proper  Location  of  Artesian  Wells  within 
the  Area  west  of  the  97th  Meridian  and  east  of  the  Foothills  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  Government  Printing  Office,  Washing- 
ton, 1890. 

Progress  Report  on  Irrigation  in  the  United  States.  Part  I.  Pre- 
pared under  the  Direction  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  by 
Richard  J.  Hinton,  Special  Agent  Artesian  Underflow  and  Irri- 
gation Investigation.  Washington,  Government  Printing  Office, 
1891.  337  pp.  51st  Congress,  2d  Session,  Senate  Ex.  Doc. 
No.  53. 

Progress  Report  of  Artesian  and  Underflow  Investigation  between 
the  97th  Degree  of  West  Longitude  and  the  Foothills  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  with  Maps  and  Profiles.  Part  II.  Prepared 
under  the  Direction  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  by  Edwin  S. 
Nettleton.  Washington,  Government  Office,  1891,  14  pp.  51st 
Congress,  2d  Session,  Senate  Ex.  Doc.  No.  53. 

A  Report  on  Irrigation  and  the  Cultivation  of  the  Soil  thereby, 
with  Physical  Data,  Conditions,  and  Progress  within  the 
United  States  for  1891.  By  Richard  J.  Hinton,  Special  Agent 
in  Charge.  52d  Congress,  1st  Session.  Executive  Document 
No.  41.  459  pp.  1892. 

This   forms  the  first  volume  of  a  series  of  four,   the  titles 
and  contents  of  the  other  three  being  as  follows :  — 

Volume  2.  Final  Report  of  the  Chief  Engineer,  Edwin  S.  Nettle- 
ton,  C.  E.,  to  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  with  accompanying 
Maps,  Profiles,  Diagrams,  and  Additional  Papers.  116  pp. 


LIST  OF  IRRIGATION  REPORTS.  321 

Volume  3.  Final  Geological  Reports  of  the  Artesian  and  Under- 
flow Investigations,  between  the  Ninety-seventh  Meridian  of 
Longitude  and  the  Foothills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  made  by 
Prof.  Robert  Hay,  F.  G.  S.  A.,  Chief  Geologist,  209  pp.  [This 
volume  contains  sub-reports  by  the  Assistants,  Messrs.  Hill, 
Hicks,  and  Culver  (see  p.  145  of  present  volume).] 

Volume  4.  Final  Report  of  the  Mid-Plains  Division  of  the  Arte- 
sian and  Underflow  Investigations  between  the  Ninety-seventh 
Meridian  of  Longitude  west  of  Greenwich  and  the  Foothills  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  by  Special  Agent  J.  W.  Gregory  of 
Garden  City,  Kansas,  and  a  Special  Report  on  certain  Artesian 
Conditions  in  the  State  of  South  Dakota,  by  Fred.  F.  B.  Coffin, 
Engineer  for  South  Dakota.  61  pp. 

WEATHER  BUREAU  :  — 

Certain  Climatic  Features  of  the  two  Dakotas.  By  John  P.  Fin- 
ley,  First  Lieutenant,  Ninth  U.  S.  Infantry.  Washington,  1893, 
204  pp. 

Department  of  the  Interior. 

UNITED   STATES  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OP 
THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  REGION  :  — 

Report  on  the  Lands  of  the  Arid  Region  of  the  United  States, 
with  a  more  detailed  Account  of  the  Lands  of  Utah,  with  Maps, 
by  J.  W.  Powell.  2d  Edition.  Washington,  1879,  195  pp. 
(Irrigable  Lands  of  the  Salt  Lake  Drainage  System,  by  G.  K. 
Gilbert,  pp.  117-126;  Irrigable  Lands  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Sevier  River,  by  Captain  C.  E.  Dutton,  pp.  133-144;  Irrigable 
Lands  of  that  Portion  of  Utah  drained  by  the  Colorado  River 
and  its  Tributaries,  by  Professor  A.  H.  Thompson,  pp.  152- 
164;  Land  Grants  in  Aid  of  Internal  Improvements,  by  Willis 
Drummond,  Jr.,  pp.  165-182.) 

UNITED  STATES  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY:  — 

First  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  Irrigation  Survey;  pub- 
lished as  "Part  II.  Irrigation  "  of  the  Tenth  Annual  Report 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  Washington,  1890, 
123  pp.  (Preliminary.) 

Second  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  Irrigation  Survey; 
published  as  "Part  II.  Irrigation"  of  the  Eleventh  Annual 
Report  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  Washington, 

21 


322  APPENDIX. 

1891,  395  pp.  ( Water-Supply;  Surveys  of  Reservoirs;  Bibli- 
ography of  Irrigation.) 

Third  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  Irrigation  Survey;  pub- 
lished as  "Part  II.  Irrigation"  of  the  Twelfth  Annual  Report 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  Washington,  1891, 
576  pp.  (Reservoir  Sites;  Hydrography;  Irrigation  in  India.) 

Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  Irrigation  Survey; 
published  in  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  52d  Con- 
gress, 1st  Session,  Executive  Document  1,  Part  5;  Vol.  IV., 
Part  3.  Washington,  1892,  486  pp.  (Water-Supply  for  Irriga- 
tion; American  Irrigation  Engineering;  Engineering  Results 
of  Irrigation  Survey;  Construction  of  Topographic  Maps  and  the 
Location  and  Survey  of  Reservoir  Sites  in  the  Hydrographic 
Basin  of  the  Arkansas  River;  Location  and  Survey  of  Reservoir 
Sites  during  the  Fiscal  Year  ending  June  30,  1892.) 

ELEVENTH  CENSUS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  1890:  — 

Bulletin  No.  35,  Irrigation  in  Arizona;  No.  60,  in  New  Mexico; 
No.  85,  in  Utah;  No.  107,  in  Wyoming;  No.  153,  in  Montana; 
No.  157,  in  Idaho;  No.  163,  in  Nevada;  No.  178,  in  Oregon; 
No.  193,  Artesian  Wells  for  Irrigation;  No.  198,  Irrigation  in 
Washington.  Extra  Bulletin,  No.  23,  Irrigation  in  the  West- 
ern United  States  (containing  condensed  statistics  of  areas, 
values,  and  water-supply). 

All  the  above  were  prepared  by  F.  H.  Newell.  A  final 
report  is  now  in  preparation,  and  will  form  a  part  of  the 
Census  Heport  on  Agriculture. 

Navy  Department. 

Narrative  of  the  Expedition  of  an  American  Squadron  to  the  China 
Seas  and  Japan,  performed  in  the  Years  1852-1854,  under  the 
Command  of  Commodore  M.  C.  Perry,  U.  S.  Navjr,  Vol.  2. 
Contains  irrigation  in  Lew  Chew.  Washington,  1856.  pp. 
19,  20.) 

Department  of  State. 

Letter  to  the  Honorable  Secretary  of  State  on  the  General  Outline 
for  a  proposed  Scheme  for  an  International  Dam  and  Water 
Storage  in  the  Rio  Grande  River  near  El  Paso,  Tex.,  for  the 
Control  of  the  annual  Floods,  etc.,  and  Preservation  of  the 


LIST  OF  IRRIGATION  REPORTS.  323 

National  Boundary  to  the  Gulf,  and  for  other  Purposes.     Wash- 
ington,  December  10,  1888. 

Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioners  to  the  Centennial 
International  Exhibition,  Melbourne,  1888.  Published  under 
Direction  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  by  Authority  of  Congress. 
Washington,  1890,  452  pp.  (Report  on  Irrigation,  T.  B.  Merry, 
pp.  291-294.) 

SPECIAL  CONSULAR  REPORTS  :  — 

Canals  and  Irrigation  in  Foreign  Countries.  Washington,  1891. 
(Irrigation,  pp.  255-494.) 

Treasury  Department. 

BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS  :  — 

Report  on  the  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Fiscal  Year  1889,  Part  2.  Commerce  and  Irrigation,  by  Wm. 
F.  Switzler.  Washington,  1889,  897  pp. 

Report  of  the  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States  for  the  Year 
1890,  Part  2  of  Commerce  and  Navigation.  The  Commercial, 
Industrial,  Transportation,  and  other  Interests  of  Alaska,  Ari- 
zona, California,  Idaho,  Nevada,  Oregon,  Utah,  and  Washing- 
ton. Washington,  1891,  1174  pp. 

UNITED  STATES  COAST  SURVEY:  — 

Letter  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  transmitting,  in  Answer 
to  a  Senate  Resolution  of  May  19,  1876,  a  Copy  of  the  Report  of 
George  Davidson,  on  the  Methods  employed  in  irrigating  Lands 
in  India  and  Southern  Europe.  Washington,  1876,  Government 
Printing  Office,  73  pp. 

War  Department. 

Irrigation  in  Egypt,  by  J.  Barrois,  Paris,  1887.  Translated  by 
Major  A.  M.  Miller,  U.  S.  A.  Washington,  1889,  113  pp. 

Irrigation  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  by  Colonel  B.  H.  Grierson, 
in  Report  of  Secretary  of  War  for  1888-1889.  Washington,  1890, 
Vol.  I.  pp.  180-188. 

UNITED  STATES  SIGNAL  SERVICE:  — 

Charts  and  Tables  showing  the  Geographical  Distribution  of  Kain- 
fall  in  the  United  States,  prepared  under  the  Direction  of  Brig. 


324  APPENDIX. 

and  Bvt.  Maj.  Gen.  D.  B.  Hazen,  Chief  Signal  Officer  of  the 
Army,  by  H.  H.  C.  Dunwoody,  First  Lieutenant  in  Fourth  Ar- 
tillery, Acting  Signal  Officer.  Published  by  Authority  of  the 
Secretary  of  War.  Washington,  1883,  51  pp.  No.  9  of  Profes- 
sional Papers  of  the  Signal  Service. 

Tables  showing  Monthly  Precipitation  at  various  Points  through-' 
out  the  Dry  Area,  by  Captain  S.  M.  Mills  (in  Report  on  the 
Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States).     Washington,  1885, 
pp.  212-216. 

Report  on  the  Interior  Wheat  Lands  of  Oregon  and  Washington 
Territory,  by  Lieutenant  Frank  Greene.  Washington,  1888, 
25pp. 

The  Climate  of  Nebraska,  particularly  in  Reference  to  Temperature 
and  Rainfall,  and  their  Influence  upon  the  Agricultural  Inter- 
ests of  the  State.  Washington,  1890,  60  pp.  Senate  Executive 
Document  No.  115,  51st  Congress,  1st  Session,  and  is  called  a 
" Report  of  the  Chief  Signal  Officer,"  and  was  transmitted  by 
the  Secretary  of  War,  in  compliance  with  Senate  Resolution  of 
April  22,  1890. 

Irrigation  and  Water  Storage  in  the  Arid  Regions.  Letter  from 
the  Secretary  of  War  transmitting  a  Report  of  the  Chief  Signal 
Officer  of  the  Army,  in  Response  to  House  Resolution  dated 
May  23,  1890,  relating  to  irrigation  and  water  storage  in  the 
arid  region.  Washington,  1891,  356  pp.  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, Executive  Document  No.  287,  51st  Congress,  2d 
Session. 

[This  document  is  prefaced  by  a  brief  report  on  the  Climatol- 
ogy of  the  Arid  Region  of  the  United  States  with  reference  to 
Irrigation,  by  Gen.  A.  W.  Greely,  Chief  Signal  Officer  U.  S. 
Army,  followed  by  tables  of  precipitation  and  rainfall  for  Ari- 
zona, California,  Nevada,  Colorado,  and  Utah,  all  bound  in  one 
volume,  and  also  issued  separately  for  the  various  States  and 
Territories  named,  but  with  the  same  introductory  matter  for 
each.] 


